South Korea's sex doll industry stirs controversy with 'life-size' imports

Sex toys have become increasingly mainstream among South Koreans in recent years. Shops selling vibrators for men and women draw steady crowds in university districts, and major South Korean retailers like Shinsaegae and E-mart have even begun selling sex toys last year.

But “real dolls” are not ordinary sex toys, according to their critics, and the South Korean government isn’t exactly seeking a sex revolution by legalizing the importation of them (the government blocked some 895 porn sites just last February). Some Twitter users are choosing to call these products “rape dolls” instead, and the original petitioners say they’ll give further rise to sex crimes, which have already become a hot-button topic in the wake of South Korea’s #MeToo movement.

“Do you think that using [sex dolls] will reduce sex crimes? On the contrary, those who are not satisfied with the motionless doll are likely to commit sex crimes against living women,” the online petition reads. “Don’t these dolls seem to seriously undermine human dignity?”

Truth be told, there are no studies about the effect of sex dolls on its users or any possible links between sex dolls and sex crimes, according to Kathleen Richardson, director of the Campaign Against Sex Robots and a professor of ethics and culture of robots and artificial intelligence at De Montfort University. However, Richardson believes that sex dolls are still likely to do harm.