The Materialisation of Infant Abuse in Dolls and Robots
This article contains discussion of child and infant sexual exploitation.
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It was Nelson Mandela who said ‘There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children’. That statement is as pertinent as ever as our young – from babies through to teenagers – face a threat to their dignity so great that our governments need to make it their highest priority.
There are those who want to bracket off child sex-abuse dolls from the real harm that children face, but at the Campaign Against Sex Robots (CASR) we recognise that child sex-abuse dolls are the materialisation of the real sexual abuse of children. The calls to have dolls ‘prescribed’ to paedophiles, or to class them as ‘fantasy’ are arguments that can no longer be sustained.
Academics such as Craig Harper and Rebecca Lievesley argue that child sex-abuse dolls could be used for ‘minor attracted persons’ (MAPs):
‘More controversially, trials of child-like sex dolls may be considered in settings geared towards the prevention of sexual abuse among individuals who are sexually attracted to children. Case study evidence of this practice should be considered and evaluated prior to larger trials of the efficacy of dolls as a cathartic sexual outlet for minor-attracted persons’
(Sex doll Ownership: An Agenda for Research, 2020).
The very use of the term MAPs belies their sympathies – it was developed by paedophiles and child sex offenders who are keen to ‘rehabilitate’ the image of paedophilia.
We cannot disconnect the sexual exploitation, rape and abuse of children from their materialised forms as child sex-abuse dolls and body parts. Doing so, labels paedophilic behaviour as “fantasy”, outside of human experience and real-life consequences.
Since 2016, 230 child sex-abuse dolls have been seized by the UK Border Force. There is currently no law that makes them specifically illegal – the Criminal Prosecution Service relies on a mixture of laws from the Customs Consolidation Act 1876, the Customs and Excise Management Act 1970 as well as the Obscene Publications Act 1959. Needless to say, governments are at a loss on how to regulate these new objects.
In Australia, new legislation in 2019 came into effect with an amendment to the Criminal Law Consolidation Act of 1959. The amendment targets child sex-abuse dolls as ‘child exploitation material’ and focuses on dolls or discreet body parts, such as torsos or legs which can be bought on Amazon and other websites. The Australian based campaign group, Collective Shout, has been at the forefront of identifying offenders in the Australian market including Amazon, Etsy and Alibaba.
On one site, a doll was folded into a suitcase, revealing the disturbing image of a mutilated representation of a child’s body.
On one site, a doll was folded into a suitcase, revealing the disturbing image of a mutilated representation of a child’s body.
At the CASR, we have started to notice a worrying trend by which Real Born dolls – hyper realistic infant dolls – are available to buy alongside dildos and BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Sadism and Masochism) instruments.
When we first started seeing this pattern, we wondered if Amazon’s algorithm was flawed, accidently offering up the choices of Real Born dolls when users were looking for sexually explicit adult material. Now, we do not believe this to be an accident.
Screenshots taken 5.3.21
Source: Amazon UK
“At the CASR we see the rise of child sex-abuse dolls as a materialisation of the actual abuse of children.”
We have seen websites that feature child and infant sex-abuse dolls, with the dolls posed in sexual, pornographic positions. In one, we witnessed a child sex-abuse doll that looked like a 12-month girl holding a teddy bear, with a dummy in her mouth. Next to her were the dimensions of what her vagina, anus and mouth could take.
We identified another website that offers dildos in the shape of infant boys. Named ‘Butt Babies’, these life-like babies made for rectal insertion are available to buy using established credit cards like Amex, UCB, Mastercard, Paypal and Visa. They have been contacted by the CASR, but have all declined to comment. The option to buy a “Butt Baby” is still available.
Dildos for inserting in the anus in the form of infants.
Child sex-abuse dolls are part and parcel of a culture of child sexual exploitation. In media reports, many found in possession of a child sex-abuse doll in the UK and Australia in the last 6 months has also been found in possession of explicit child abuse images.
Reports show an increase of images and films in Category A child abuse material, which according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) includes:
Keith Barlow, the head of the National Crime Agency (NCA), has stated that an estimated 50,000 people [mainly men] are downloading child abuse images in the UK. The problem is so extensive that law enforcement authorities argue they cannot prosecute all these offenders.
In 2020, former UK Labour MP, Eric Joyce was found with images of children aged between just 12 months and seven years. Joyce avoided jail.
In 2017, Cambridge University professor, Simon Jarvis was found with 2,000 illegal images, 45 of which were in Category A, including one of a baby. He was found in possession of Yahoo chat logs containing ‘extremely graphic descriptions of child sexual abuse’. Jarvis avoided jail.
Something is incredibly wrong with our justice system when the torture and abuse of babies is increasingly found in more cases of child sexual abuse.
As we argued in 2015 with the launch of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, child sex-abuse dolls and robots must never be permitted. The evidence of materialisation of the abuse of children is beyond dispute as an organised abuse system allowing men to view and masturbate to the torture and mutilation of infants.
This image were retrieved (5/3/21) from a child sex-abuse doll website – the images were straight out of a paedophile playbook. The site has been reported to the police but no action has been taken.
Nelson Mandela is right, the measures we put in place to protect our children should be recognised as one of the greatest accomplishments of our human species. However, this commitment to children is increasingly neglected as few governments are bold enough to face the reality of child sexual exploitation.
At the CASR we will continue to have tough conversations, and will campaign all the way to make sure that Mandela’s sentiments are reflected in the world we live in.
