Etsy has long been a go-to website for artisans and collectors to sell their goods. Think crochet patterns, novelty doormats, 3D-printed jewelry and antique ceramics. Soon, though, its wares will be a little less varied.
Starting July 29, many sex toys will be banned, the company said, including products that are penetrative, like dildos and vibrators.
So will any “printed or visual materials” that exist for “the purpose of sexual arousal or stimulation.” (Say goodbye to old Playboy issues and other vintage adult magazines.)
So will anything printed or embroidered with a sexual slogan related to “daddy,” “mommy” or any other family member. (Etsy offered examples that cannot be printed in a family newspaper.)
The new policy, released by Etsy on Thursday and reported by Mashable on Friday, is the company’s attempt to “continue to keep our users safe,” Alice Wu, the head of Etsy’s trust and safety team, wrote in a public letter. The company declined to comment further.
Not all sex-related products will be banned. Accessories like handcuffs and harnesses will still be allowed, along with paintings or sculptures that show “visible breasts and buttocks.” But the “more rigorous guidelines,” as Ms. Wu’s letter referred to them, mean that some Etsy sellers will have to leave the platform entirely or substantially shift their offerings.
Twisted Fantasies, a company in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is one of the sellers set to take “a big hit,” Avi Goldstein, its owner, said. The business specializes in colorful silicone sex toys designed and produced in the United States. Among other offerings, it has phallic items carved in the shape of cannoli, tulips and Christmas trees.
Since it was founded in 2022, Twisted Fantasies has made more than 4,800 sales on Etsy. (In its first year, about 65 percent of the company’s total sales came from Etsy.) But in 2023, Mr. Goldstein said, Etsy began reviewing and delisting some of his products, citing violations without much specificity or consistency. For example, he said, some products were seemingly flagged for referring to animals, even if the reference was just to the product’s color, like “canary yellow.”
Even before the ban, it was getting harder to run his business, Mr. Goldstein said. So, he thought, “Why don’t we just make our own marketplace?” This year, he started the website Spicerack as an independent alternative to Etsy.
The online boutique already has about 75 sellers, which are vetted to make sure they’re not “dropshippers” or simultaneously listing products on e-commerce behemoths like AliExpress or Amazon.
Mr. Goldstein said that Spicerack is in the process of adding about 100 more sellers, half of whom signed up when the Etsy ban was announced.
This is not the first time Etsy’s policy changes have inflamed online communities. In 2015, the platform banned magic and spells. The same year, two artists created a new website, Witchsy, in response to Etsy’s “censorship” of not-safe-for-work art.
But the latest ban comes at an interesting moment. Although the new policy did not directly refer to ensuring the safety of children — rather, it alluded to “ensuring content is appropriate for a wide audience” — concern over their exposure to sexual content on the internet has been rising.
At the same time, sex toys have never been more mainstream. Celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Dakota Johnson, have endorsed and sold them. Walmart has invested in sex toys. Wirecutter has reviewed clitoral vibrators.
Since Etsy’s announcement, indie sex toy enthusiasts have rallied around small businesses, circulating lists of their stores on social media.
“We love what we do and what we create,” one business, Simply Elegant Glass, wrote on X in a thread that acknowledged the need for “protecting children from adult content” but questioned Etsy’s ban as a solution. “There’s a lot of love that goes into this business — a lot of love and a lot of very hard and demanding work.”
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