Well, this is completely horrific.
Shein, the Chinese online shopping platform, is in hot water in France after reportedly platforming an exceptionally disturbing product: what is, apparently, a sex doll of a child.
Images of the product are benign enough — kind of in that creepy, uncanny valley level of realistic, but it just looks like a doll of a little girl with a teddy bear. But the product description reportedly made authorities’ “blood run cold.”
France’s consumer watchdog organization, the Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (or DGCCRF for short), flagged the product just days before Shein is set to open its flagship Paris store.
The 3-foot doll, with a listed price of €190 (about $218 US) clearly represents a child — but is advertised to potential buyers as a “sex doll” that has an “erotic body” that includes “realistic” genitalia.
Yeah. Ick. It’s exactly as horrible as one could fear.
The DGCCRF’s report stated the combination of factors “makes it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” They referred the product listing to the public prosecutor’s office. Spokesperson Alice Vilcot-Dutarte expressed how shocked even the DGCCRF were at the product, telling Le Parisien:
“The announcements particularly shocked us. Imagine a child browsing the site, looking for a doll, randomly stumbling upon these products.”
Shein itself was also made aware of the product being sold on its site, and took swift action. Their spokesperson said:
“The products in question were immediately removed from the platform as soon as we became aware of these major shortcomings.”
The rep stated the company has a “zero-tolerance policy towards any content or products that violate our internal policies or applicable laws.” However, authorities are questioning the vetting process which allowed a product this overtly problematic to reach the public.
Shein told the BBC they’re “taking immediate corrective actions and reinforcing our internal controls to prevent this from happening again.” That includes “investigating how these listings circumvented our screening measures” and doing a “comprehensive review to identify and remove any similar items” third-party sellers are offering. How… How was that not in place already??
When The US Sun reached out to Shein, they swore they were taking this very seriously… then immediately plugged their new store:
“We take this matter extremely seriously. Such content is completely unacceptable and goes against everything we stand for. The scandal could not have come at a worse time for the fast-fashion empire. Shein is set to open its first-ever permanent physical store at Paris’s historic BHV Marais department store on Wednesday – a move that has already caused uproar in the world’s fashion capital.”
Yeesh.
DGCCRF’s Vilcot-Dutarte noted how this is not the first controversy for Shein in France — they’ve already faced financial penalties for “deceptive business practices, false claims, and other non-compliance issues.” They’ve been stripped of tax benefits by the French Parliament. But we guess they make enough money that it just doesn’t matter?
Not enough money for a better screening process against child pornography products though, apparently?
