South Korea is creeping ever closer to banning the sale and purchase of not only ‘sex robots’, but realistic sex dolls. Over a quarter of a million South Korean citizens recently signed a petition to have the dolls banned, thus passing the threshold whereby the proposal has to be considered by the government there.
Although South Korea is a highly capitalist and modern society, like its neighbour Japan, it tends to have much more conservative views on sex and pornography. As well as the steady growth in influence of Christianity, it has suffered more than any other Asian country from outbreaks of #MeTOO hysteria, including concern over an apparent hidden spycam epidemic (known locally as ‘molka’ voyeurism), to even allegations of sexual harassment involving their famous K-Pop stars.
South Korea is actually closer to Communist China as regards the regulation of porn and sex than it is to Japan. Like China, pornography is heavily repressed, while sex dolls and sex toys have been considered as a different category altogether with liberal regulations. Now that could change, although the proposals appear to be highly controversial and it’s uncertain whether the bans will come about. The Seoul High Court ruled earlier that sex dolls are personal items that should not be considered as pornography.
For my part, I feel that there is a very real danger that both sex dolls and ‘sex robots’ could be made illegal pretty much everywhere in the not too distant future. This made more likely by the fact that both ‘sex robot’ marketers and ‘experts’ and writers on sex robots (who may personally have very liberal attitudes) appear to enjoy ‘playing the devil’s advocate’ with regard to inventing reasons to ban sex robots simply to draw attention to their products.
