- By Ajeet Kumar
- Tue, 04 Nov 2025 02:53 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Shein, a Chinese online store, has stopped selling “sex dolls” on its website. This happened after France threatened to ban Shein from its market, CNN reported. France's anti-fraud office said Shein was selling sex dolls that looked like children, which is illegal in France.
Shein said on Monday it imposed a full ban on sex dolls on its marketplace and temporarily delisted the "adult products" category after French consumer watchdog spotted childlike sex dolls two days ago.
France's Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs, and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) had said late on Saturday it spotted the dolls on the website along with several other pornographic items such as adult-looking sex dolls, and had reported the matter to judicial authorities.
Why did France ban Chinese sex doll?
The dolls were available on Shein's French website until Monday morning. French Finance Minister Roland Lescure warned that if this happened again, Shein could be banned from France. He said these items are illegal.
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Shein stated they have completely banned all sex doll products and removed them from their site. They also temporarily removed their "adult products" category to review it.
Child exploitation
Donald Tang, Shein's executive chairman, said fighting child exploitation is very important to the company. Shein said they removed the products as soon as they found out about the issue and are taking steps to prevent it from happening again.
“I want to be very clear: If these behaviors are repeated, we will be entitled to… ban access to the French market for the Shein platform,” he told BFMTV Monday. “These horrible objects are illegal,” he added.
This incident comes at a bad time for Shein, as they are opening their first physical store in Paris, followed by more stores across France.
French authorities have given the case to prosecutors and the French telecom regulator. Under French law, sharing child sexual abuse material online can lead to seven years in prison and a €100,000 fine. The sale of these dolls also suggests Shein doesn't have enough protections to stop minors from accessing pornography on its website, which is also a crime in France.
France's High Commissioner for Childhood, Sarah El-Haïry, wants to find out who sold and bought these dolls. In 2018, Amazon faced a similar problem when third-party sellers sold child sex dolls on its platform, which Amazon then removed.