Australia is cracking down on child sex dolls being imported from Japan, with one self-confessed paedophile calling his products 'works of art'.
The life-like dolls relieve paedophiles from offending, say their manufacturer; but an Australian expert warns they would instead make their disgusting desires even stronger.
Fairfax has reported that Australian customs officials have seized 18 consignments of the sex dolls since 2013.
A man in Sydney was charged with owning child abuse material in 2014 after police allegedly found one of the child sex dolls in his bed.
The sick sex toys are sold by Japanese company Trottla, founded by Shin Takagi, a man who calls himself a paedophile - but says he has never actually abused a child.
Mr Takagi says he is an artist and the child sex dolls, his "works", help to stop child sex abuse crimes from happening.
"We should accept that there is no way to change someone's fetishes," Mr Takagi told The Atlantic.
"I am helping people express their desires, legally and ethically. It's not worth living if you have to live with repressed desire."
But experts say there is no evidence to support claims that using dolls prevents child abuse and may instead lead to more of it.
"Using these kind of sex dolls is not at all helpful in managing paedophilic tendencies," Clinical and Forensic Psychologist Dr Katie Seidler told the Huffington Post.
"All they do is feed deviant sexual fantasies that are reinforced through the process of masturbation and ejaculation, thus making the degree of arousal stronger and ultimately contributing to a potential desire to act out in 'real life' rather than through the fantasy of a doll."
An Australian petition calling for a ban on such aids for paedophiles reached more than 60,000 signatures earlier this year, although the objects were already illegal because they were considered child exploitation material.
Newshub.
