Listed for sale on Amazon, sex dolls bearing the likeness of children may have been removed from the site, but the e-commerce giant is due to appear this Monday, May 9, before the Dieppe court, alongside a customer who has acquired one of these appalling reproductions.
Over-the-counter childlike sex dolls
They were sold with descriptions touting their resemblance, almost larger than life, with children: spine-chilling arguments, such as dolls “flat-chested vaginal and anal virgins” or again, with “a silky touch (…) without difference with the real flesh”reports the Parisian. These sex dolls, in the likeness of children, sold on Amazon between 100 and 1000 euros depending on the degree of realism achieved, and which are worth the e-commerce giant a passage in court. This Monday, May 9, 2022, Amazon is indeed appearing before the authorities of Dieppe, in the jurisdiction of the buyer of a doll. He himself is also summoned.
A procedure too light, facts too serious
The sale had legitimately aroused the indignation of many associations such as “La Voix des enfants”, which filed a civil action against the internet juggernaut. Following their alerts and complaints, filed for “exploitation of images of a child pornography nature and dissemination of pornographic images likely to be seen or perceived by minors”the Secretary of State for Children and Families had even immediately asked for the withdrawal of these items from sale. Amazon had no objection, eliminating sex dolls from its platform in August 2020.
In fact, it is within the framework of a very particular procedure that the leader of online sales will testify on May 9, namely, an appearance on prior recognition of guilt (CRPC). A legal form that does not satisfy children’s advocates, believing that the seriousness of the facts deserves a public debate. On the contrary, in this context, the lawyer for La Voix de l’Enfant, Me Frédéric Benoist, sees the intention of avoiding any controversy: “We strongly contest the use of this procedure, the purpose of which is to quickly judge on the sly and without legal debates.. And yet, the issue, the “background of the file”, is not the least: fight against the trivialization of the sexualization of children.