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Read more“It comforts offenders in their actions”: The problem with ‘virtual’ child sexual abuse material
*Content warning- this content may be distressing*
Child sexual exploitation material, or child sexual abuse material, refers to sexually abusive images of children. It may include photographic or video evidence of the rape, sexual abuse and torture of children and infants.
Virtual or computer-generated child sexual exploitation material is produced without the use of living children, depicting fictional children. Under Australian law, this content constitutes illegal child sexual exploitation material. The Commonwealth Criminal Code prohibits the sale, production, possession and distribution of offensive and abusive material that depicts a person, or is a representation of a person, who is or appears to be under 18. This includes virtual or animated representations of children, as well as child sex dolls.
Read moreNo evidence child sex dolls prevent child sexual abuse, says report
Australian Institute of Criminology releases report on child sex dolls
The Australian Institute of Criminology has released the report ‘Exploring the implications of child sex dolls’ by Rick Brown and Jane Shelling. The report discusses child sex dolls in relation to the sexualisation of children, as an “escalated form of engaging with child pornography”, the normalisation of child sexual abuse and the risk of grooming.
The authors acknowledge that there is very little empirical evidence on the implications of sex dolls and child sex dolls, and therefore also draw on research on child exploitation material and sex offences in considering the implications of sex doll use and ownership.
Potential Harms: Escalation, Desensitisation, Objectification, Commodification and Grooming
The report documents a range of potential harms associated with the production, distribution and use of child sex dolls.
It is possible that use of child sex dolls may lead to escalation in child sex offences, from viewing online child exploitation material to contact sexual offending.
It may also desensitise the user from the potential harm that child sexual assault causes, given that such dolls give no emotional feedback.
The sale of child sex dolls potentially results in the risk of children being objectified as sexual beings and of child sex becoming a commodity.
Finally, there is a risk that child-like dolls could be used to groom children for sex, in the same way that adult sex dolls have already been used.
There is no evidence that child sex dolls have a therapeutic benefit in preventing child sexual abuse.
The authors conclude:
It is ‘reasonable to assume that interaction with child sex dolls could increase the likelihood of child sexual abuse by desensitising the doll user to the physical, emotional and psychological harm caused by child sexual abuse and normalising the behaviour in the mind of the abuser’.
We have previously exposed Wish app and Amazon for selling child sex dolls, along with a range of other replica child body parts marketed for sexual use. In response to our campaign, Wish withdrew these items from sale.
See also:
OPEN LETTER ON THE DANGERS OF NORMALISING SEX DOLLS & SEX ROBOTS
Child sex dolls removed from online store Wish
Against her will’: Amazon sells exploitative books glorifying rape and sexualising children
Child sex dolls removed from online store Wish
Your voice does make a difference
Read moreAmazon again selling Child Sex Abuse Dolls
The online retailer had committed to pulling child sex dolls of its site
Read moreChild Sex Dolls fuel pedophilia - why is Wish selling them?
Who said this was ok?
Collective Shout exposed Wish Shopping for selling child sex dolls months ago.
The popular online shopping app boasting 300 million subscribers around the world, responded to complaints about the dolls by saying it would remove the items from its sales platform. It appeared they removed some of the items but many remained on the site.
Follow up complaints to Wish have been ignored. Needless to say, Wish hasn't responded with the urgency this deserves.
Child sex dolls are illegal in the UK and Australia. Speaking out against Wish Shopping's child sex dolls, Paul Green, Member of the NSW Legislative Council higlighted the stiff penalties for importing Child Sex Dolls into Australia:
Recently the Australian Border Force has intercepted the importation of nine child sex doll across Australia. The Australian Border Force has committed to pursuing the full force of the law in these cases, with penalties including fines of up to $450,000 and imprisonment of up to 10 years against anyone attempting to import these objects.
The US - where Wish Shopping Headquarters are located - is following the lead of Australia and the UK. A bill to outlaw child sex dolls under the proposed "Creeper Act" is currently before the US Senate having already passed the US House of Representatives. The Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robots (CREEPER) Act will ban the importation and transportation of child sex dolls.
Wish allows businesses and manufacturers from around the world to sell through its app. By continuing to turn a blind eye to - and profit from - the criminal actions of businesses trading in child sexual abuse material, Wish is complicit. The company is worth 8.5 billion dollars, we cannot be silent while Wish profits from the sexual exploitation of children.
Take Action: Contact Wish CEO and Sponsors
Wish Shopping
facebook.com/wish | twitter.com/WishShopping e: [email protected]
Wish CEO
twitter.com/sfpiotr | facebook.com/peter.szulczewski
Soccer Players for Wish's #timeonyourhands ad campaign
Robin Van Persie
twitter.com/Persie_Official | facebook.com/RobinvanPersie/
Gareth Bale
twitter.com/GarethBale11 | facebook.com/Bale
Tim Howard
twitter.com/TimHowardGK | facebook.com/timhoward/
Claudio Bravo Muñoz
twitter.com/C1audioBravo | facebook.com/ClaudioBravoOk/
Paul Pogba
facebook.com/PaulPogba/ | twitter.com/paulpogba
Gianluigi Buffon
facebook.com/GianluigiBuffon/ | twitter.com/gianluigibuffon
Neymar Jr
twitter.com/neymarjr | facebook.com/neymarjr/
LA LAKERS - Wish logo on jerseys
twitter.com/Lakers | facebook.com/losangeleslakers/
CEO, co-owner LA Lakers Jeanie Buss
Calling all activists! Contact Wish shopping app CEO Peter Szulczewski
Calling all activists! Time to get creative.
Contact the Wish CEO - Peter Szulczewski.
We've been challenging Wish shopping app to remove child-like sex dolls off their platform. The response from Wish on our Facebook page suggested they were not aware of the items that had “made it onto [their] platform” and that they were committed to removing such items “when [they] find them”.
But after many weeks the items are still there along with a whole range of horrific items. In addition to child sex dolls, we have found realistic silicone replica vaginas, female torsos and backsides, replica female mouths and throats, disembodied child sex doll legs, feet, and heads for sale, all for men’s sexual use. Wish are not a small company. As of 2016, Wish had about 100 million users.
OPEN LETTER ON THE DANGERS OF NORMALISING SEX DOLLS & SEX ROBOTS
We are a coalition of humanists, parents, women’s groups, survivors, academics, and activists campaigning against commercial objectification of human beings who are concerned with the normalisation of “sex robots”. These technologies are developed and backed by academic and business robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) communities who have to date, been the loudest voices shaping the policy direction about the benefits of sex robots while largely ignoring the potentially dangerous effects on women, men, and children.
The Campaign Against Sex Robots (CASR) was launched in 2015 to draw attention to the new ways in which the idea of forming ‘relationships’ with machines is becoming increasingly normalised in today’s culture. Sex robots are animatronic humanoid dolls with penetrable orifices where consumers are encouraged to look upon these dolls as substitutes for women (predominantly), and they are marketed as ‘companions’, ‘girlfriends’ or ‘wives’. Even more alarming is the development of sex robots that represent children. At a time when pornography, prostitution and child exploitation is facilitated and proliferated by digital technology turning it into a global profitable industry; these products further promote the objectification of the female body and as such constitute a further assault on human intimacy.
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