As expected, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill approved unanimously by the legislature to ban child-like sex dolls.  The law goes into effect October 1, 2019.

A legislative analysis of the bill said that child-like sex dolls imported from China, Japan and Hong Kong are becoming increasingly prevalent in the U.S. They are part of what has become a $15 billion sex toy industry, according to the analysis.

The new law makes it a first-degree misdemeanor in Florida to possess, give away, advertise, sell or display the dolls. A second offense would be a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

That’s all well and good and a bit of a no brainer.  The real issue comes when the state attempts to ban the importation of the sex dolls.  I suspect that like Prohibition when alcohol was banned and illegal drugs, this law will do little to stop the dolls from coming ashore.  Profits are to be made and market demand appears to be high (thus the law prohibiting the sex dolls in the first place).  The shipment of these contraband items will be another headache for Florida Port Authorities, US Customs, and other federal agencies.  Unless and until we can get cooperation from those who are exporting these dolls, they will continue to come to Florida.

And the problem isn’t just foreign. The online retailing giant Amazon.com came under scrutiny in March 2019 when reports emerged that their product listings had included “child sex dolls for pedophiles.” On 23 March, the right-leaning website PJ Media reported that:

In a stunning discovery, Amazon has sex dolls that look like children for sale on their site. A company called DVKFP has sex dolls, that are clearly meant to target pedophiles and represent children, listed on Amazon including a promise for ‘hidden delivery.’

One clearly shows an underdeveloped child’s body with no breasts and little girl headband while another has photos of what looks to be a young teen tied up with rope with torn clothes and a bloody gag in her mouth.

It’s not clear what the specific basis was for Amazon’s decision to remove the two dolls discovered by PJ Media. As of 28 March, the seller who had listed the dolls was still active as an Amazon vendor. We asked the company why the seller in question had not been suspended or had their selling privileges revoked, but we did not receive a response to that particular question.

As of 28 March, it was not illegal in the United States to buy or sell sex dolls that resemble children. However, on 27 March the Florida State Senate scheduled the third reading of a bill (SB 160) which would prohibit “knowingly selling, lending, giving away, distributing, transmitting, showing, or transmuting; offering to commit such actions; having in his or her possession, custody, or control with the intent to commit such actions; or advertising in any manner an obscene, child-like sex doll.”

In 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4655, known as the CREEPER Act, which would have banned the importation or transportation of “child sex dolls,” which the bill defined as “an anatomically-correct doll, mannequin, or robot, with the features of, or with features that resemble those of, a minor, intended for use in sexual acts.” The bill was sent to the U.S. Senate and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2018, but it did not advance from there.

The bill argued that child sex dolls should be banned on the grounds that a correlation exists between the use and possession of such dolls and the consumption and production of child sex abuse imagery, that would-be predators could use such dolls to learn how to rape children, and that the dolls are “intrinsically related to abuse of minors, and they cause the exploitation, objectification, abuse, and rape of minors.”’

So, we aren’t done with this yet.