1y ago

Etsy to ban sale of most sex toys, explicit content, and more

Online retailer Etsy will prohibit sales of most sex toys, content that depicts sex acts and genitalia, and more starting July 29.

The indie seller published its Adult Nudity and Sexual Content policy yesterday, which states that sales of adult toys that are insertable, "applied to the genitalia," or "designed for genitals to be inserted into them" will be prohibited. That pretty much runs the gamut — dildos, vibrators, rings, plugs, and the like will be banned.

78 comments

That is the problem Etsy thinks it should be tackling rather than the fact that its small business sellers are being driven off the platform. Shows where their priorities are.
- Yeah, it's turning into Amazon, flooded by resellers of cheap Chinese shit. That does far more harm to the Etsy brand.
  
  It would do even more harm if people were more aware of how China is able to make things so inexpensively. Amazon and Walmart have standardized obfuscating slave labor.
  In Xinjiang, the government is the trafficker. Authorities use threats of physical violence, forcible drug intake, physical and sexual abuse, and torture to force detainees to work in adjacent or off-site factories or worksites producing garments, footwear, carpets, yarn, food products, holiday decorations, building materials, extractives, materials for solar power equipment and other renewable energy components, consumer electronics, bedding, hair products, cleaning supplies, personal protective equipment, face masks, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other goods—and these goods are finding their way into businesses and homes around the world.
  https://www.state.gov/forced-labor-in-chinas-xinjiang-region/
  Yes, the US also employs slave labor for big food brands. It’s important to be aware of those as well.
  https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-c6f0eb4747963283316e494eadf08c4e
  
  Chinese reselling is the most profitable business model. Etsy is a public company and must choose the most profitable business model. The idea that a publicly traded company will have it's primary business model being selling handcrafted goods is asinine.
  Not attacking anyone that didn't see this coming, I'm just commenting on how stupid it is that every company feels the need to go public in our culture of greed regardless of their mission and place in the market.
How about they get rid of the shitty dropshippers instead?
- My favorite was the one that generated a ship code but never actually shipped the item, and kept telling Etsy "Oops - one more week for us to get this figured out" every time I complained with Etsy until the refund period ended, and Etsy stood behind them.
  I'm never using Etsy again after that bullshit.
  
  So that's fraud, report it to your state/local AG office of consumer protection. Might be able to get your money back.
- Ain't that their main money driver now?
I'm gonna be real with you people.
I'm not putting something in my body made by some fucking rando with no evidence whatsoever of what kind of materials they made it with.
Maybe, just maybe, this is a good thing because who knows what kind of toxic plastics were being used to make DIWhy sex toys.
The banning of porn is otherwise dumb, of course.
- Meanwhile, most sex shops: selling jelly which just straight up melts with time, TPE/TPR which are porous and might melt when boiled and therefore pretty much impossible to keep clean, PVC which they promise doesn't contain phthalates this time, and silicone that has about a 50% chance of actually being platinum cured. DIYers can't be much worse, as far as I know, they either outright state what methods and materials they use or will provide them upon request.
  
  What's wrong with platinum?
  
  That’s why I only get my toys from Bad Dragon!
- That's fair, etsy also sells a lot of adult toys that aren't meant to go inside. They have plenty of bdsm gear made by small creators, I've bought a couple from specific people who I follow and they've been great.
- But you trust corpos?
  Also, all that stuff is standard movie industry prop material and is well documented. Here's one listing from Smooth-on with the Safety Data Sheet right in front. It would be harder to get the toxic stuff. If you're unsure, just ask the maker for the SDS. If they don't know what that is, then run.
- There is wisdom in this one haha
Lame, now Etsy is just going to be a wish or temu resalers hawking cheaply made goods, crack down on that instead Etsy.
- "Going to be"?
- "crack down" on their business model?
Etsy hasn’t been good for years. But I haven’t found an alternative yet. Anybody know what we should use instead?
- While still young and not a drop-in replacement yet, https://artisans.coop/ looks promising
  
  Awesome! Thank you for this!
- started going downhill around the time they went public (2015). chasing higher stock prices instead of attracting quality sellers of actual handmade goods.
  
  What?!? Classic enshittification then.
- I hate to say it, but Amazon Handmade is the only one stop shop I've found that can compete so far. I'm hoping that changes soon.
  Depending on what you want there are specific marketplaces dealing in it. Aftcra tried to do American handcrafted stuff but they closed down recently. Most of the places are just T-shirt or other textile printing on demand or they give you the tools to make your own storefront without the cohesive "search everything we've got" format of Etsy.
  That's what I've found, which means I could be way the fuck off base because I'm just a drunk and I'm not passionate about handmade goods unless I happen to run across them locally.
Etsy is now dead to me. Any site that bans writings or nipples is not a place that deserves my money.
Hmm. If the concern is the Etsy brand value, I'd just spin it off into a new company that does permit it. If you've already built a network of people selling and buying stuff and the software to do so, terminating it just sends the value of that to zero.
- I think it's most likely pressure from payment processors.
  
  Payment processors shouldn't be acting as a moral authority.
- Could be liability? Someone sells a poorly made toy which breaks inside someone. Is etsy concerned they maybe held liable for that sort of thing being allowed to be sold? I don’t know - thinking out loud
  
  Ehh. I mean, if they were just banning sex toys, I could believe something like that, but doesn't explain why they'd ban stuff other than sex toys simultaneously:
  Etsy is also banning nudity for human models, including "gluteal clefts and female nipples/areolas." If you're selling a sexy item of clothing, for example, you must censor body parts, use a mannequin, or opt for just photographing the clothing.
  "Sexual language" concerning incest or "referencing familial relationships" will also be banned now. The examples Etsy lists are "Daddy's slut" and "Choke me Mommy." As of publication, these terms are still searchable on Etsy, and so is nude content. Searches for "porn" come up blank.
  
  Even like 'real' dildo manufactures tend to claim the toy is for novelty use only and don't recommend actually using the thing as an insertable object. Adult toys aren't really regulated, because that would mean legitimizing them which is icky to the government. So they'll never really be regulated for health and safety
- Companies don't spin-off new competition. That would get everyone of the executives and the board fired. They kill competition. That's why it's mergers and acquisitions. Not spin-offs that meet the needs of consumers.
  
  So confidently incorrect.
Based on the various draconian terms and conditions I've seen on my search for a solution I'd be surprised if this was driven by Etsy. In my opinion this is much more likely to be caused by its payment processor.
- Yeah, this stinks of another company coming under pressure from Exodus Cry/Morality in Media lobbying of payment processors.
Wasn't the Hitachi Magic Wand initially sold as a "muscle massager"?
- Depending where you look it may still be. My wife uses hers frequently on the back of her head and neck to help with migraines.
  Whether or not I am the cause of those migraines I shall neither confirm or deny.
“Insertable” or “designed to be inserted in to”…. Never underestimate the creativity of a horny person…
They're messing with my retirement plans!
No, I'm not selling the stuff! That's the problem. I better get on a shopping spree.
Let me know where all these sellers will take their wares next. I'm hoping it's a fediverse based shopping app.
- i'm trying to imagine a fediverse shopping setup where vendors and shoppers are globally trusted in an unhackable way. i'm guessing blockchain is involved?
  
  There seems to be a discussion regarding this topic here. I found several other such conversations too. It could work!
  https://lemmy.eus/post/247855
  
  No need to imagine: https://codeberg.org/flohmarkt/flohmarkt
Where the hell am I supposed to go for custom-made, anatomically correct dinosaur genitalia sex toys? WTF? Please make it make sense.
- Bad Dragon
  
  You don't really get the personal touch there though.
- TTC LLC?
On an unrelated note I recently just came into some massive stock of ornamental desk noodles if anyone is interested.
As for non-realistic content — like drawings — total nudity and sex acts "without visible genitalia or anuses" are allowed, but non-realistic images of explicit acts aren't.
Okay okay... So if we don't SEE the anuses, but I ABSOLUTELY know that there ARE anuses under the clothes, and I'm talking I can picture these things vividly, man... So then we're cool right, Etsy?
noooo not my whiskey barrel butt plugs for the groomsmen!
I have questions about the sex toy space on Etsy that I think can only be answered by a visit there
- I recommend Fantasticocks and DeepFantasies.
This is great news because of the homemade instruments people use on themselves/eachother.
This is terrible for the cheap painting and sculpture market.

78 comments