France’s High Commissioner for Children, Sarah El Haïry, is calling for full-scale checks on buyers after childlike sex dolls appeared for sale on Chinese company Shein’s website in France.
“My focus today is on the suppliers but also ‘the men who keep these horrors, these ignominies, in their homes, and who may have children sleeping in the next room,” El Haïry told French TV today.
“It’s not enough to remove these horrors. There are many people responsible, from those who produce them to those who buy them. I want us to go all the way to the top of the chain,” she added.
For the French child protection chief, these sex dolls are not just toys but “paedophile objects predators use to practise on, sometimes before moving on to actual children,” she added.
As well as highlighting the link between these objects and real-world abuse, El Haïry argued that the French authorities already “dealt with these dolls in criminal cases involving sexual violence against children”.
She demanded that platforms therefore pass on information about buyers, “which will enable us to carry out a number of checks and see if there are any children at risk”.
“I want us to go all the way down the chain this time. I’m fed up because these are not objects like any other. I want the list of buyers,” El Haïry said.
“When you buy objects as despicable as these, there is an increased risk of acting on your urges. And so, children in the vicinity need to be protected,” she added.
Earlier today, the French Government threatened to block access to Shein’s website in France if the platform fails to act.
