France's finance minister threatened on Monday, November 3, to ban Shein from the country if the Asian e-commerce giant resumes selling "childlike" sex dolls, just days before it opens its first physical store in Paris. The warning followed France's anti-fraud unit on Saturday reporting that the company was selling dolls of a likely "child pornography nature."
On its website, Le Parisien daily published a photo of one of the dolls sold on the platform, accompanied by an explicitly sexual caption. Shortly after the fraud watchdog's statement, Shein announced that the dolls had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry.
Finance Minister Roland Lescure warned on Monday he would move to ban the company from the French market if the items returned online. "These horrible items are illegal," he told the BFMTV broadcaster, promising a judicial investigation.
Shein is due on Wednesday to open its first physical store in the world inside the prestigious BHV Marais department store in central Paris, a move that has sparked outrage in France. The Singapore-based company, which was originally founded in China, has faced criticism over working conditions at its factories and the environmental impact of its ultra-fast fashion business model. Some brands have pulled their products from BHV Marais since the announcement.
[...]
France has already fined Shein three times in 2025 for a total of €191 million ($220 million). Those sanctions were imposed for failing to comply with online cookie legislation, false advertising, misleading information and not declaring the presence of plastic microfibers in its products. The European Commission is also investigating Shein over risks linked to illegal products, while EU lawmakers have approved legislation aimed at curbing the environmental impact of fast fashion.
[...]
Ah yes, the dolls that “aren’t hurting anyone” according to the pedos that buy them. There will be someone in this thread defending their child sex dolls before long.
IF and I do mean if such dolls prevent or reduce harm to children then they are a "good" thing. I have no idea whether they do, I would love a study.
Anything that reduces harm to children is worth looking into.
It's this horrifying? Sure.
Does it trigger a protective instinct in most people? Absolutely.
Are there any studies that show whether something like this helps or hurts pedophile behavior around real children and their likelihood to abuse or not? I'd love to know.
If I had to choose between banning these out of a sense of moral indignation or lowering the rates of child SA... I'd really like to see some data.
Not sure data is available due to the nature of the thing. Who is going to put in for a grant to study childlike fuck dolls and their effects? Topic's poison, no data coming.
People who want to try to find out how to reduce harm to children. Pedos exist, unfortunately. We should find out how to make them not hurt anyone. Gathering scientific data is fundamental to that effort.
I think we're at the same point as a society as we were 50 years ago with heroin addicts. We tried maximum repression (and hating their addiction) and it didn't help. Then we started looking into what could be done to reduce harm, and started distributing needles for free, and giving them heroin substitutes. This was extremely controversial at the time "spending tax money to give needles and drugs to addicts??" but as it turns out it was the right thing, because it hugely reduced HIV infections and drug deaths.
The same goes for pedos. We have to find out how to minimise harm, and then do those things, no matter how much we hate it.