UPDATE - 22 JULY: Earlier this week, we joined in with other advocacy groups and launched our campaign calling on multi-national shopping platform Alibaba.com to immediately remove vile child sex dolls on sale.

Not long after our petition launch we received information that Collective Shout, who originally launched the investigation into the sickening 'products’, was successful in pressuring Alibaba to remove them. 

Alibaba has said it will be working to prevent this from happening in future. We were expecting it would take much longer to see a resolution to this issue, so this is a great outcome.

We would like to thank our CitizenGO supporters who lent support to this important cause by writing to Alibaba directly or signing our petition.

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The topic of this action alert is very confronting.

You see, right now, extremely realistic child sex dolls are being sold online right here in Australia and New Zealand. We need your help to stop this depravity!

Last week, advocacy group Collective Shout released findings from its undercover investigation into global shopping giant Alibaba. Some of the listings they exposed included dolls with replica genitalia and video guides demonstrating how they could be “used”.

Outrageously, sale of these dolls continues despite the fact that Alibaba has previously stated the items were in violation of their terms and conditions and said that they would remove them from sale. Still, nothing has happened.

Despite the fact that obtaining and owning a child sex doll is illegal in Australia,  profit-hungry vendors are offering to ship to the country.

According to reports, some of the items advertised as “sex dolls for men” were as small as a six-month-old baby with one listing even describing the ‘baby’ as ‘cute’ and ‘soft’ and another headlining the ‘product’ with ‘take her home... for man sex.’

Disturbingly, another featured a silicone 4 ft. 9 in. ‘small breast, young girl’ that was so tiny it could be taken apart and packed into a suitcase. 

The disgusting items are being sold for between $250 - $500 each by at least 18 different suppliers on the Chinese owned ecommerce platform.

I cannot even express how difficult and distressing it is to explain to you what is happening here. The word ‘disturbing’ doesn’t even begin to describe how vile and perverted these ‘products’ are. Some of the ‘product’ descriptions are so graphic to write about.

Alibaba is directly enabling and profiting from a trade which is not victimless. According to the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Safety Survey (ABS, 2017), 11% of women and 5% of men in Australia report having been sexually abused before the age of 15 years.

The easy access to child sex dolls sold online thanks to Alibaba is no doubt facilitating the perverted fantasies and deviancy of paedophiles across the country.

As recently as May this year, federal police arrested three men in New South Wales for the purchase and possession of childlike sex dolls - one of which was imported from China.

A study conducted last year by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that child sex dolls are linked to an increase in child sexual abuse and desensitisation to the damage that sex abuse causes to children.

“The sale of child sex dolls potentially results in the risk of children being objectified as sexual beings and of child sex becoming a commodity… there is a risk that child-like dolls could be used to groom children for sex, in the same way that adult sex dolls have already been used,” the study said.

The study also refuted claims that child sex dolls have a therapeutic benefit in preventing child sexual abuse.

We cannot stand aside and continue to let paedophiles feed on the twisted fantasies of helpless babies and young children.

You can help us take urgent action today by signing this petition calling on Alibaba to cease sale of these vile items.

Please, SIGN the petition to Alibaba, to stop this disgusting trade in its tracks.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney-General Christian Porter have recently announced legislative changes to protect religious freedom in Australia following the Ruddock Religious Freedom Review, however those changes are insufficient.

Alarmingly, the proposed changes will not comprehensively protect religious freedom instead viewing belief as an exemption. This "privilege" could be easily revoked at leisure rather than it being a fundamental human right. 

Furthermore, the ability for someone to conscientiously object to a practice or belief will not be adequately protected.

The bottom line is that there are no solid guarantees that the proposed laws will actually protect those publicly expressing their beliefs in the workplace and elsewhere - whether that be schools, charities and other faith-based organisations that are not churches or church affiliated.

Freedom of religion is a basic, inalienable human right and deserves the highest recognition and protection by government.

Since Australia is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Federal Government should regard freedom of religion through the expression of thought, belief, speech and conscience as positive rights rather than treat them simply as narrow exemptions or afterthoughts.

To many followers of Jesus, faith isn't just a private, obscure aspect of their lives. Indeed, faith has broad implications for all of life. Not only does it shape the way we think and feel but it also has a huge bearing on how we interact with those around us. This freedom arises from the innate human capacity to order one’s life through thought and reason rather than by instinct or fearful compulsion.

If your faith is important to you, please petition Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney General Christian Porter urging them to enact laws that provide comprehensive protection for religious freedom.

Sign our petition now! It’s easy and will only take a few seconds of your day.