The French government is threatening to block access to the online retailer Shein for offering sex dolls that look like children.

“The boundaries have been crossed,” France’s Economy Minister Roland Lescure said on the RMC channel. “If this behaviour is repeated, we are within our rights to ban access to the Shein platform on the French market, and I would do so.”

The country’s competition and consumer protection authority, DGCCRF, which is part of Mr Lescure’s ministry, had previously found that the description and categorisation on the site.

“It makes it difficult to doubt the child pornographic nature of the content,” he said.

Mr Lescure said there will be an investigation into the items for sale on the low-cost site, and judicial authorities are aware.

“These terrible objects are illegal,” he said.

Shein, which has its headquarters in Singapore, announced shortly after the allegations came to light that the products had been removed from the website.

“We are taking this situation extremely seriously. This type of content is completely unacceptable and goes against all the values we stand by,” Shein spokesman Quentin Ruffat was quoted as saying in a statement on X.

“Immediate measures would be taken to rectify the situation,” he added.

(dpa/NAN)