A Mainstream Contributor To Sexual Exploitation
"Whatever it is, You can get it on eBay"
Unfortunately, that includes childlike sex abuse dolls and spycams advertised specifically for filming women without their consent.
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She has a sweet little nose, innocent eyes, and pigtails. Your 9-year-old niece will love it – the doll looks just like her. But then you realize the doll is posed on a bed – and as you focus in on the rest of the photos posted by the seller, you can’t believe what you’re seeing. The images of abuse are so realistic, so incredibly disturbing that they haunt you even after you quickly close your web browser. How is it possible these products are being sold on your favorite online shopping site?
eBay is one of the world’s most visited online marketplaces, second only to Amazon. The company boasts that the “magic of eBay” is that it “uplifts and brings people together.” Yet in reality, eBay is providing a platform for and profiting from products that normalize and likely even contribute to child sexual abuse, image-based sexual abuse (nonconsensual filming and sharing of sexually explicit images), and the objectification and degradation of women and girls.
No brand should benefit from violence against women and children. Yet countless sex dolls- including ones that look like young girls – and cameras explicitly advertised for filming women naked and in sexual situations without their knowledge or consent are being sold on eBay. The platform is also monetizing a form of image-based sexual abuse: deepfake pornography of female celebrities. Whitish fluid on the chest of a doll with the dimensions of a preteen, a School Girl Summer Love doll touching herself under her uniform skirt, photos of real man abusing what looks like a prepubescent girls…The photos are so graphic, so life-like that they may be considered hardcore pornography.
Several of eBays’ industry peers have taken steps to rid their platforms of products that perpetuate dangerous norms. Amazon, Etsy, Wish, and Alibaba have taken measures to rid their marketplaces of childlike sex dolls and spy cams advertised for filming women nude without their consent. It’s past time for eBay to make the principled choice to stop profiting from exploitative products.
Our Requests for Improvement
- Remove all products that normalize child sexual abuse and permanently ban sellers
- Ban and remove all sex dolls, as allowing these items promotes the objectification of women and inevitably results in childlike sex abuse dolls being sold
- Prohibit products and advertising that encourage recording women without their knowledge or consent and add explicit policies against promoting or selling any form of image-based sexual abuse (including deepfake pornography)
- Enforce existing policies, such as eBay’s ban on pornography and listing requirements under your “adult items policy” – including blurring nudity (depicted or actual) or sexually explicit images. Sellers violating policies should be prohibited from using your platform.
- Develop a filtering mechanism to protect users who do not wish to see explicit content – and set it as the default
Proof
Evidence of Exploitation
WARNING: Any pornographic images have been blurred, but are still suggestive. There may also be graphic text descriptions shown in these sections. POSSIBLE TRIGGER.
Childlike Sex Abuse Dolls
Because sex dolls are permitted on eBay, many sellers have predictably fashioned dolls which resemble children and teens, thereby catering to and encouraging pedophilic tendencies and normalizing child sex abuse. While searches for “child sex doll” or “teen sex doll” do not yield young-looking sex dolls, a quick scan of search results for “sex doll,” “adult doll,” etc. yield a number of dolls that look like young girls and preteens.
Several of the seller descriptions even indicate they are selling childlike sex abuse dolls by using thinly disguised phrases such as school girl,” advertising dolls wearing school uniforms or surrounded by stuffed animals, and/or selling dolls with dimensions and characteristics of children or preteens.
Childlike sex abuse dolls are an extension of child sexual abuse. In fact, researchers Brown and Shelling note that childlike sex abuse dolls may actually increase the likelihood that a pedophile will act out on a real child. Childlike sex abuse dolls may bridge the gap between viewing child sexual abuse materials and sexually assaulting a real child. Because dolls provide no emotional feedback, the use of child sex dolls may desensitize the user to the horrific harms of child sexual assault. Research into sex addiction has demonstrated that compulsive sexual behavior in males is characterized by novelty-seeking and desensitization; more extreme acts are necessary to maintain the same level of arousal. A pedophile may start using childlike sex abuse dolls after becoming desensitized to watching child sexual abuse materials online. When he inevitably becomes desensitized to dolls, he may begin victimizing real children.
Spy Cams Advertising Nonconsensual Filming of Women
NCOSE researchers found multiple spy cameras (also called spycams or hidden cameras), on eBay that are advertised with images of women showering or engaging in sexual activity. It is abundantly clear that these tools are being promoted specifically to film women without their knowledge by the very names and descriptions of the products: “spy,” “hidden,” “nanny cam,” “night vision.”
That eBay is providing allowing marketing that encourages criminal behavior is highly disturbing – especially given that the posting of nonconsensually filmed sexual content on the internet is rapidly escalating and causing untold trauma. This is a form of image-based sexual abuse that eBay may be facilitating.
Pornography & Sexually Explicit Content, Including Deepfakes
Despite pornography being prohibited in eBay’s policies, pornography and other sexually explicit content – including deepfake pornography of celebrities – is easily found on eBay.
According to eBay’s Adult Items Policy, “listings [of sex toys and sexual accessories] must not include images of nudity or sexual content.” This policy is clearly not being enforced. In addition to countless explicit nude images being sold on eBay that do not classify as art (despite sellers throwing “art” into the title), but are meant to sexually arouse (i.e., pornography), NCOSE’s researchers found that eBay’s listings for sex dolls include graphic images of sex acts such as oral sex and masturbation. These images are so lifelike and are meant to stimulate that we would argue they qualify as pornography. Countless products include sexually explicit imagery in the main thumbnail image – including genitalia and sex acts – and include pornographic text in the listing.
Furthermore, eBay is profiting from a form of image-based sexual abuse: deepfake pornography. NCOSE researchers have found dozens of listings for AI-generated pornography of celebrities. No one should be subjected to this traumatic form of sexual abuse, no matter who they are. eBay must develop and enforce policies prohibiting synthetic sexually explicit material and should institute rigorous measures to verify consent of persons depicted in sexually explicit content being sold on its platform.
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Does 1-9 v. Murphy et al
This case alleges that women on a college field hockey team were preyed upon by a man who secretly filmed them showering and changing in a locker room. That footage was uploaded to XHamster and Pornhub. Read the full complaint here.
Child Sex Abuse Dolls: A New Form of Technological Terrorism Against Girls
Caitlin Roper, Collective Shout
In this presentation, Caitlin Roper, author of the newly-released Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating, exposes the production of child sex abuse dolls as a growing threat to girls. Caitlin debunks common defences for child sex abuse dolls by advocates and discusses strategies for global resistance.