“Whet”
Let’s watch the phrasing, people.
You people just found out about this now? Y’all are fortunate ones.
Although in the practice it is mostly being limited to “indistinguishable from real”, per the letter of the law it could include any simulated materials and it seems to have had some cases come up. And it does explicitly state that the absence of a real model is irrelevant to the charge.
Heck, even *written *porn descriptions involving minors have run afoul of obscenity laws, contrary to a popular assumption.
I am on the side that laws about child protection should be about child protection first and last, not about “OMG that’s sick!”, and that “what ifs” must be carefully considered. Let’s face it, before there were these dolls and before there was a DarkWeb, perverts were going at it grooming and preying on kids old-school style (a perv does not need to show a kid that other kids (real or simulated) do it, he can show them “normal” porn and say “see, that’s what BIG girls do! You’re a big girl, aren’t you?”).
Of course even if the “loli doll” helps a lonely perv take the edge off, it does nothing to help the kids who are molested right at home where their “loving” dad/uncle/sibling can just walk in at will any time and does not have to cough up 6 grand for it 
)
BTW I have to say, I cannot get with the OP visceral reaction about “a new low for Humanity”, considering the things that have actually happened before now.
Yes, let’s keep on our camel-toes, everyone!
Destroying societal taboos come into play, as people don’t want to have to think about such things, and want to keep that area of their mind free of such considerations. However there area segment of the population that has been sexually molested as a child and when it is time, to open that door as to what it means if they really want to heal that. The closed door of the taboo makes that process harder in a society, causing feelings of being dirty. If it was more common to be open to talking about the causes and effects it might be a better healing environment for those who need it. And I have yet to see much that these dolls increase the rate of child sexual molestation. And again these dolls seem both anatomically correct yet non-sexual, which children should be, and should not be ashamed of.
I’ve not found that kiddiefucking being taboo makes it harder for me to talk about having being abused. If anything, the strength of the taboo makes it more sympathetic - I know I elicit a different reaction to my rapes than adult male rape victims do, for sure.
Disgusting, but if it satisfies a pedo enough to keep them from molesting a kid, I’d begrudgingly accept it.
Inevitably the dolls will integrate components that will allow them to simulate speaking and interacting. Possibly the doll’s computer memory might be used as evidence in a courtroom proceeding.
Prosecutor: “Show us on the child where the defendant touched you.”
This seems like the key question. And I don’t think anyone knows the answer. For obvious reasons, it’s very hard to research this stuff.
Oh, and yes, I’ve met a child molester. Or at least, a peddler in kiddie porn that was made using actual children. I didn’t know that about him until more than a decade after he died. I saw no clues of any kind. I’m in favor of anything that decreases the number of actual children being abused, whether it’s icky or whether it involved banning dolls. I wish I knew which it was.
Cite? I have heard of the threat of prosecution being used to convince owners of websites featuring such materials to shut down, but I’m not aware that anyone has ever actually been convicted of any crime for writing or possessing text-only porn.
That brings us to “The Question”. Will they quell the appetites of pedophiles by giving them another outlet, or will they just inflame their desires more by getting them aroused?
I don’t have a statistical/factual answer to that question. I can only go by the way I react. When I am sexually stimulated by my sensory input, it increases my desire to have real sex, it doesn’t quell it.
Besides, there is always the social stigma. Say I’m at a party at Joe’s house. I’m looking for the bathroom, take a wrong turn, and end up in his bedroom. On his bed I see a child sex doll. GOOD-BYE, Joe, is all I’m thinking.
I’d be interested in seeing any convictions as well. Shoot, if you own a copy of Steven King’s book IT, it has pages and pages describing sex acts between children.
That shipping charge is always how they get ya.
Seems like with a price tag of several thousand dollars, anyone who would buy such a thing would have to be pretty well past the “experimental” stage. The guy in the OP’s link, for example, had an extensive collection of kiddie porn. There’s no evidence that he actually molested children; but if he didn’t, it’s because he had sufficient control over his impulses despite years of consuming kiddie porn. I find it doubtful that a doll such as this could degrade that self-control in a way that the porn didn’t, but YMMV.
Piers Anthony’s Firefly not only has extremely explicit sex acts between children and adults, but is a defense of such acts.
But books have always enjoyed an especially privileged status in 1st amendment jurisprudence, so I think authors can feel pretty safe writing whatever they want.
I keep reading the OP title as: Hannity hits new low - pedophile sex dolls
Certainly it does nothing for the pedo “keeping it in the family”, but that’s not really the target audience for the doll. Uncle/Auntie Pervey isn’t the same mindset as the molester seeking out other pervs to trade victims with or making movies to upload to the darkweb. Sure, there’s an overlap on that Venn diagram, but I expect it to be rather small.
I think it would satisfy the appetites of at least some of the pedos out there simply from a risk management standpoint. On one hand they’ve got a doll that is legal, worst case is being shunned and not invited to the block party if the neighbors find out. On the other hand if they act on their urges with a live child they risk jail and probable death when their fellow inmates find out what they’re in for.
No cites for any opinions expressed here, just my feelings on the matter.
Has he responded to this yet? This is nearly as bad as that still-unrefuted Glenn Beck rumor a few years ago!
Wrong. Hentai is dirty cartoons, to be sure, but it does not necessarily involve kids.
RE The OP
I await data or at least informed hypotheses on whether these dolls would raise or lower the number of actual children being molested.
I’m of the opinion this thread is sort of glossing over how expensive these things are. Things that cost thousands of dollars aren’t going to fall into the laps of potential pedophiles to lure them to the enticing world of live prey. These things, if legal, would only be bought by people who felt they had no other outlet for their urges at all. Which is to say, people who have firmly decided they’re never going to go after a live kid and are willing to pay thousands of dollars to ease the pain of that decision.
You can make a much stronger argument for Steven King’s IT being a gateway drug - at least that shit’s available.