Etsy announcement: https://www.etsy.com/legal/policy/adult-nudity-and-sexual-content/1269612959532
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Thanks, and looking forward to professional discussionā
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Does anyone actually avoid buying at a website because they sell sex stuff (which IMO is the only justification for this move)? As long as thereās a way to filter that content out it shouldnāt be an issue.
[mod edit: off topic content removed]
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IMHO, Etsy should not be allowing old magazines and mass-produced items in general. Etsy has for quite a few years allowed itself to be polluted by cheap, mass-produced crapola and items dubiously labeled āvintage,ā which I think is a shame. I used to enjoy shopping there because the items were truly handmade and often unique, but now it feels like a dollar store much of the time. I wouldnāt have a problem allowing some truly vintage stuff, but I think Etsy has become pretty much a free-for-all.
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I didnāt know what that meant either, and Iām kind of sorry I searched for it on Amazon (adults only, NSFW).
Itās not the James Brown song, thatās for sure.
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Although the new policy did not directly refer to ensuring the safety of children ā rather, it alluded to āensuring content is appropriate for a wide audienceā ā concern over their exposure to sexual content on the internet has been rising.
Honestly, I get why Etsy is doing this. Sales platforms donāt want to be in business of vetting adult listings for consent, legality, or age of models or service providers. Itās a huge cost upfront, and the liability is unlimited at this time.
Plus, imagine that Etsy was found to run afoul of credit card companies and processors and were banned.
The marketplace will adapt, exactly as mentioned in the article about Witchsy and Spicerack.
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This is kind of far fetched but I have to wonder if it also has to do with etsys ācustomized for youā homepage. One misclick on an Etsy listing and suddenly the webpage thinks all you want to buy is whatever it is you clicked on and itās boobs or penises everywhere as far as the eye can see.
Being able to āwipe cleanā your history is buried deep in etsys privacy settings somewhere and I always have to google how to do it when Iāve accidentally somehow clicked on suggestive items.
Rather than fixing bad coding itās easier for them to just eliminate listings lol.
Iām also wondering if the safety aspect of it would hold Etsy liable if something was to break off and get stuck inside somewhere? We have already seen Etsy be liable with the amber necklace choking.
It honestly surprises me that people are allowed to buy food or cosmetics or anything on there. Would Etsy be liable if someone was to get food poisoning? What about a bacteria in cosmetics? If eye drops from a nationally known company can have issues, surely someoneās kitchen concoction eye shadow isnāt up to professional standards.
Personally I would never purchase anything to put in or in my body because manā¦I donāt even eat food at potlucks because Iāve seen what āwell meaningā peoples filth are not afraid to cook or consume in 
I have always been surprised at the fact people buy random stuff to consume on Etsy.
The vintage playboys surprises me, but also Iām sure Etsy has all kinds of āoh my kids accidentally bought this please cancelā issues that maybe they really could get punished for selling porn to children.
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OMG, I saw that link you posted before our mods removed it. I guess Amazon is still the āEverything Store.ā
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There is, but it requires sellers to mark their items as āMatureā - my understanding is many werenāt (I know, shocking).
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Iām guessing that allowing adult products simply became more trouble than it was worth, that the number of sales of these products was not enough to justify the expense of dealing with claims and all the things necessary to police them on the site. I understand there is a market for, well, most things if you find the right buyers, but itās like stores choosing to drop tobacco products ā doing so is not 100 percent altruistic. Itās a business decision, expense vs. potential profit, with optics, liability, compliance and customer complaints being part of the expense.
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Vintage Playboys are pretty much banned on most marketplace sites. Seems silly since they are far less explicit than later Playboys.
Among the not listed inventory I have is 50 or more vintage Playboys. The only place Iād consider selling them would be Amazon which offers BPM shipping and Amazon objects.
The sex toys must be a stand on principle by Etsy since they are a good profit center for other marketplaces. Either that or they recognize that a significant portion of their market find them as offensive [mod edit: off topic content].
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The change is definitely something from within, trying to please certain swaths of people. It wouldnāt have anything to do with their payment processor. A company of etsyās size is way above the rules and whoeverās processing their payments wouldnāt risk their business by bringing up any issues with them.
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Credit card processors absolutely track the content of ad spends using their product and wield that knowledge as they want.
And they do not want to facilitate anything illegal.
Though I am only guessing, my bet is that as Etsy has seen an increase in legitimate (legal, safe) adult product listings, they have also seen an increase in gray-area and illegal listing attempts, alongside consumer complaints and questionable advertising attempts.
And even if Etsy is not under pressure from credit card processors, they still can simply not want to invest all the time, money, and personnel to monitor and manage what they will be prohibitingāor the liability.
Nothing suggests that this is a morality police move on Etsyās part.
I personally think itās a smart business move.
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