Shein Can't Sell Sex Toys Unless It Checks IDs, French Court Says
Laws requiring porn platforms to age-check visitors are becoming "a Swiss army knife for the government."
Shein, a cheap-stuff superstore based in China that is popular worldwide, cannot sell sex toys unless it checks purchaser IDs, a French court has ruled. The case comes after the French government tried to shut down Shein for three months.
International attention on the case has focused on the fact that Shein—through its third-party vendor marketplace—was temporarily selling what's been described as "childlike sex dolls." That's appalling, of course. But understandable disgust and anger about that aspect has overshadowed a bigger story.
According to the BBC, the court ordered age verification measures to be enacted for the sale of all "adult" items, with a potential fine of €10,000 (about $11,700) for each breach.
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Sex Toys: Age Verification's Next Frontier?
"I don't live in France and I don't shop at Shein," you might be thinking. "Why should I care?"
Because, my friends, this is another sign about where online age verification is going.
Politicians and activists—in the U.S. and around the world—initially pushed age verification measures as a requirement for porn websites. Who could be against stopping kids from watching hardcore pornography? they asked anyone who objected (conveniently eluding the facts that these bans are often broad enough to cover all sorts of sexuality-related material, and that they won't affect just children but will invade the privacy of countless adults trying to access protected speech).
Then we started hearing about the need to implement age verification measures—checking IDs or requiring facial scans and so on—on all social media platforms. Now we're hearing about age verification for video games, age verification for vibrators, age verification for everything.
Texas lawmakers earlier this year introduced a measure that would have mandated age verification for sex toy sales online. It failed to advance, but at the rate things are going I don't think that will be the last we hear of it.
Measures like these could mean anyone who wants to purchase sex toys or sexual wellness devices online will have to attach their identity to the purchase—opening them up to surveillance, hackers, and so on.
The Shein Incident
In France, Shein came under fire "after France's consumer watchdog last month reported it to authorities for selling 'sex dolls with a childlike appearance' and weapons," reports the BBC. "The court said the request for a three-month suspension was 'disproportionate'—but did order age verification for the sale of adult products."
The court rejected the French government's suggestion that Shein should have to stop selling third-party items entirely. It noted that the offending items were just a few of hundreds of thousands of products for sale, and that Shein had quickly removed them when informed about them.
So people protested the product and Shein swiftly responded. That seems like the market working as it should. As much as I find the whole business revolting, I don't think such products should be illegal (no real children are being harmed, and products like this could potentially stop people from harming real children). But it's perfectly reasonable to expect mainstream retailers to avoid selling such merchandise, and for people to boycott or otherwise protest if they do sell it.
Shein also temporarily suspended the sale of all sex dolls and all adult products. Now a court has said Shein should not resume selling "sexual products that could constitute pornographic content, without implementing age-verification measures," per Le Monde.
It's unclear to me whether the court's ruling means Shein must apply age verification measures only to people trying to purchase sexual products, or if it's saying that the sale of those products means the company must age-verify all Shein shopers. The latter could effectively stop many online marketplaces from selling sexual products at all.
What is clear is that the lurid nature of this Shein incident masks a worrying bigger trend.
'A Swiss Army Knife for the Government'
In France, it's not just offensive sex dolls under fire. And the age verification fervor doesn't even stop at sex toys broadly. We're also seeing age-check enthusiasts take aim at ads depicting bikinis and lingerie.
"High Commissioner for Children Sarah El Haïry announced that she had lodged a complaint with the French Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom) denouncing the fact that second-hand clothing sales platform Vinted was hosting profiles promoting accounts on pornographic platforms Mym and OnlyFans," Le Monde reported last month. "On November 17, El Haïry announced that she would do the same for resale site Leboncoin and for Etsy, the marketplace specializing in handicrafts."
These ads do tend to depict women in bikinis or lingerie, Le Monde's Damien Leloup points out. But such images are "no less legal than the images found in clothing catalogs or on lingerie retailer websites. And if [a minor] clicked a link leading to Mym or OnlyFans, they would immediately encounter a digital age-verification wall." Leloup called the attack on these ads "yet another step in the misuse of recent legislation requiring pornographic websites to verify users' ages," describing the legislation as "a Swiss army knife for the government."
"The protection of children online cannot tolerate any loopholes," El Haïry posted to X last month.
France's government also says it will appeal the Shein decision. "Convinced of the systemic risk of the model linked to Shein, and at the request of the prime minister, the government will appeal this decision in the coming days," it announced in a statement.
More Sex & Tech News
Traffic to UK porn sites has dropped 77% since age-verification went live.UK legislator celebrates, saying she's "very pleased" with the drop, calling it a "green shoot."I don't know how they can make it any clearer that they view AV as a tool to police adult sexuality.Organize accordingly.
— Mike Stabile (@mikestabile.bsky.social) 2025-12-18T21:43:31.043Z
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