Swedish govt summons Amazon over childlike sex dolls
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) — The Swedish government on Wednesday said it had summoned Amazon and several other e-commerce sites to a meeting over the sale of childlike sex dolls on their platforms.
Swedish child rights’ organisation ChildX on Monday filed a police report against Amazon, including all of its various national sites, as well as two other sites selling the dolls in Sweden, saying the sales could fall foul of child sexual exploitation laws.
It said the sale of such products on global marketplaces risks normalising sexual abuse of children and increasing demand for exploitative material.
Sweden’s Minister for Social Services on Wednesday called the e-commerce sites, as well as children’s rights organisations and other authorities, to a meeting on November 28 to discuss how to tackle the problem.
“We must collectively explore the possibilities to stop the existence of these dolls”, Minister of Social Services Camilla Waltersson Gronvall said in a statement.
Amazon told AFP it would attend the meeting and said it had taken down the products that had been flagged.
“We have strict policies and guidelines in the segment of adult products, and we have always strictly prohibited child pornography,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
ChildX demanded Amazon take more responsibility for the products sold on its platforms.
“By taking down the ads, Amazon has admitted there is a problem and that there are serious shortcomings,” ChildX secretary general Ida Ostensson told AFP.
“They were already criticised in 2018, but the dolls went back up for sale three days later. We demand they take responsibility,” she said.
Under Swedish law, the distribution and possession of child sex images is illegal, as is possession of childlike sex dolls.
The sale of such dolls should also be illegal, according to ChildX, but has never been tested in court.
Controversy has recently swirled over the sale of such dolls, with Chinese digital platform Shein recently banning them from sale after France threatened to ban the retailer from the country over them.
