Second-hand clothes platform Vinted is underneath investigation in France after some consumer accounts have been discovered to be directing guests to pornographic content material.
France’s Kids’s Rights Commissioner Sarah El-Haïry mentioned she had requested watchdog Arcom to look at the allegations first reported in French media.
Vinted, which has 23 million customers in France, has no age-verification process – which means kids and youngsters may have been uncovered to pornographic materials with out having to indicate proof they have been over 18.
In an announcement, the Lithuania-based firm mentioned it had a “zero-tolerance coverage relating to unsolicited communications of a sexual nature or the promotion of sexual companies”.
“All inappropriate and unlawful content material is eliminated, and the place vital we take measures towards customers, together with blocking them definitively from our website,” it mentioned.
Vinted is taking the state of affairs “very critically”, it added.
Reviews first surfaced after some sellers displaying images of swimwear or lingerie have been discovered to be luring viewers to their private pages on grownup platforms corresponding to OnlyFans.
“Predators have been utilizing the sale of odd objects of clothes to direct folks to porn websites,” El-Haïry mentioned.
France has lately issued warnings to different world e-commerce platforms, together with Shein – headquartered in Singapore – after merchandise together with childlike intercourse dolls appeared of their advertising and marketing listings.
French officers say the case towards Shein varieties a part of a wider investigation into different main e-commerce platforms accused of permitting illicit merchandise to be offered on-line.
Paris prosecutors are inspecting whether or not Shein, AliExpress, Temu and Want breached legal guidelines referring to violent, pornographic or “undignified” content material accessible to minors.
Shein and AliExpress are additionally being investigated particularly over the alleged dissemination of child-related pornographic materials. The instances have been referred to the Paris Workplace des Mineurs, which handles offences involving the safety of youngsters.
Shein has already banned the sale of all intercourse dolls on its platform worldwide and says it’s completely blocking vendor accounts linked to the objects.
The French shopper watchdog, the Directorate Common for Competitors, Shopper Affairs and Fraud Management, mentioned descriptions of the dolls left “little doubt as to their child-pornography nature”.
