Etsy accused of profiting from child sex abuse material on its site

Sickening items are being sold on Etsy’s Australian shopping site, as sellers boycott the platform in protest.

Exclusive: Global shopping platform Etsy has been accused of selling child sex abuse material on its Australian site.

The online marketplace which bills itself as showcasing “magical, meaningful items you can’t find anywhere else”, has now removed a number of sex toys modelled off little girls’ body parts and marketed for men’s sexual use.

One sickening toy resembled the face of a toddler, with the advert saying it was like a “very, very young innocent girl” and that users should “be the first of hers”.

A blurred image of a sex toy that is child-like for sale on Etsy.

The items, being sold by a variety of sellers last month, were exposed by Collective Shout, a small group of Australian-based campaigners fighting against the sexploitation of women and girls.

Campaign manager Caitlin Roper said the ‘sex toys’ were “some of the most dehumanising, exploitative products” the team had seen in the 10 years they’d been operating.

She said they had repeatedly contacted Etsy over the past year to point out similar items.

“Etsy is profiting from illegal child sex abuse material and it’s not like they don’t know about it,” she said.

“We’ve been highlighting it for a year, but they’ve remained silent.”

Collective Shout campaigns manager Caitlin Roper is part of a small Australian group looking to stop the sexploitation of women and girls.

The group is backing a 60,000-strong petition set up by Melbourne mum and fashion designer Anna Cordell, who was a seller but quit the platform after coming across “a range of really distressing merchandise” on the site.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” she said.

Other sellers have since pulled out too.

Etsy refused to give an official comment when approached by News Corp.

But on its website it states that mature content is allowed.

However, anything pornographic or items like sex dolls or body parts that appear child-like are prohibited.

Mum and fashion designer Anna Cordell has launched a petition calling for Etsy to stop selling child abuse themed merchandise on its platform. Picture: Supplied

However, as the site is not a curated marketplace, sellers run their own shops and are responsible for complying with Etsy’s policies.

The company states that it monitors the site 24/7 both manually and through automatic controls, but Ms Roper said that system was failing and even items they have highlighted to Etsy have remained on the site for months.

The most recent listings exposed by Collective Shout have now been removed and it is understood one of the sellers will be banned from the shopping platform.

Originally published as Etsy accused of profiting from child sex abuse material on its site