Simply Elegant Glass has been selling hand-crafted sex toys on Etsy for nearly a decade. Throughout this period, the shop has completed over 7,000 sales and garnered more than 1,500 mostly five-star reviews. The Etsy shop — which offers glass dildos, anal plugs, and other insertable items — drives the majority of the small business’s overall sales. However, as of Monday, July 29, a significant portion of the shop’s catalog will no longer be permitted on Etsy’s marketplace due to newly imposed restrictions around sex toys.
The Adult Nudity and Sexual Content policy, quietly published at the end of June in Etsy’s “House Rules,” clearly states that “Etsy prohibits the sale of adult toys that are: inserted into the body; applied to the genitalia; designed for genitals to be inserted into them.” Additionally, it specifically forbids vendors from selling items such as “dildos, vibrators, anal plugs, sex dolls, and fleshlights.” The policy update, first spotted by Mashable, was announced alongside a community forum post by Etsy’s head of Trust & Safety, Alice Wu Paulus, who mentioned that this change was designed to align with “evolving industry standards and best practices so that we can continue to keep our users safe.”
In this announcement, Etsy stated they would notify sellers that may need to update their listing images to comply with the new standards in the coming weeks. Enforcement of the new rules would start on July 29, and any non-compliant listings would be removed. However, up to three weeks after the policy was posted online, sellers told Engadget that they hadn’t been contacted directly by Etsy. They found out about the ban via social media or other means.
Etsy did not provide specific reasons for the policy change when questioned by Engadget, but a spokesperson said the update would affect a minimal percentage of the platform’s overall seller community. The only explanation given in the policy itself was to ensure that “content is appropriate for a wide audience.”
This move has been seen as a final blow for many adult-oriented businesses on Etsy. Many sellers described past years as a struggle to sustain their existence and success on the platform. With no comparable marketplace for handmade products operating at Etsy’s scale, it feels like the only venue for finding such items has been “essentially deleted off the internet,” said Andy, a glassblower for Simply Elegant Glass, who chose to share only their first name.
“If I want to find products that are handmade — unless I knew of their existence beforehand through Etsy — finding them is incredibly difficult,” Andy said. They mentioned that advertising on Google was “prohibitively expensive,” and products from small businesses are often buried in search results. So, for someone just searching by product type, “I don’t think you would be able to find [Simply Elegant Glass] on Google,” Andy said.
Simply Elegant Glass launched its own website a few years ago and recently moved to Shopify in an effort to diversify from Etsy dependency. Yet, a recent post on X stated that, even now, “most of our traffic originates from Etsy searches.”
Andy remarked that the platform has increasingly allowed “more dubious sellers, people who do not actually make the toys, dropshippers,” and shops that seem to “fly in the face of [Etsy’s] policies.” Dropshipping involves selling products the seller doesn’t make or stock, sourcing items from third-party suppliers who then ship directly to customers. Despite Etsy’s official stance against most dropshipping, dropshippers have still found a way.
In addition to sex toys, Etsy’s updated policy bans the sale of all pornography, including vintage Playboy magazines and any photographs or photo-realistic depictions of sex acts and genitalia. Non-realistic artworks featuring sex acts or genitalia may be permitted under specific conditions: if sex acts are depicted, no genitalia can be shown; if genitalia are depicted, there can’t be any “sexual context.” Materials featuring a combination of familial and sexual terms, such as “slogans like ‘Daddy’s slut’ or ‘Choke me Mommy,’” are also prohibited. Etsy will continue to allow certain sexual accessories, like some BDSM gear and sex furniture.
Sellers speaking to Engadget questioned why Etsy couldn’t adopt solutions other than a ban, such as creating a designated adult-only section to prevent inappropriate exposure.
Both sellers and buyers have come to rely on Etsy for bespoke sex products. Etsy “is really the only place you can go that I know of to support small business/makers in the alternative product world,” Alissa Milano, an Etsy patron who has purchased sex and kink products on the platform, told Engadget in a DM.
The marketplace’s discoverability, user-friendly interface for creating listings, and options for customization have been key advantages. It also provides potential buyers a way to communicate with sellers about any questions before placing orders. “I talk to most of the customers,” said Daniel Tyler, who runs the UK-based adult site Secret Kink, and sells on Etsy under the name SecretLatex. Often, he says, “they want little changes here and there. If you’re buying on Amazon, you won’t get that.” And because listing products on Etsy costs so little — $0.20 per listing — it’s “probably the most accessible place to sell something,” said Chelsea Downs, founder of New York Toy Collective. Emerging indie marketplaces like Spicerack, which aim to offer a better option for adult-product sellers, are promising but don’t yet have Etsy’s reach or brand recognition.
Even before the ban, adult product sellers have had challenges with account suspensions and seemingly arbitrary listing removals, despite efforts to comply with Etsy’s existing rules around mature items. Some shops plummeted in the search ranks and couldn’t climb back up. “It just gets worse and worse and worse,” said Downs, noting that her shop’s sales on the platform are significantly lower than they once were.
Tyler mentioned his Etsy shop was banned about six or seven years ago for unknown reasons. “I couldn’t get the shop open, no one would respond,” he said. He rebranded and returned to the platform a few years later, and has so far stayed “safe,” but says, “I get various warnings about policy violations every other week.” His current Etsy shop sells latex and rubber kinkwear, dildos, silicone penis sleeves, and gender expression products such as packers — prosthetics designed to mimic the bulge of a penis and testicles worn under clothing. Some of his listings will no longer be allowed under the new rules.
Etsy sales represented 50 percent of Secret Kink’s turnover last year and 30 percent the year before, Tyler said. “I always said to my partner that I’m worried that any day… they’re just going to close my store down,” he added. Amid the economic struggles small businesses face, Tyler describes the platform’s latest move as “just another kick in the teeth.”
Tyler and Downs also expressed concerns about how the changes could affect shoppers’ access to gender-affirming products. Downs’ shop, which has completed over 12,000 sales in seven years on Etsy, sells a mix of pleasure and gender expression products. According to an Etsy spokesperson, items like packers classified as prosthetics and not toys (i.e., not intended for sexual acts) remain permitted, along with certain sexual wellness products.
This overhaul at Etsy comes on the heels of age verification laws gaining traction in the U.S., aimed at shielding minors from adult content online. Recently, Pornhub has pulled out of several states that have enacted or are pushing forward with such legislation rather than comply with verification methods that might pose a privacy risk to users. Selling sex has already been tough for online businesses. Payment processors like PayPal and Stripe have historically taken a harsh stance on the sale of sex-related products and sexual content (remember when OnlyFans tried to ban porn to appease the banks?).
Whatever Etsy’s reasons, affected sellers anticipate industry-wide impacts. Matt Rowe, one of the owners of the fantasy sex toy shop Odyssey Toys, said in an email that it’s going to deal a “devastating blow for so many” artisan makers. “There’re some extremely talented people driving innovation and creating incredible work through their designs, and for many of them, their business may have the rug pulled out from underneath them almost overnight.”
Rowe considers Odyssey “one of the lucky ones” as Etsy currently accounts for only about 20-25 percent of the business’s sales. Nevertheless, the potential impact on the team of owners, workers, and their families is still “really worrying.” Odyssey recently moved to a larger office and hired new staff members, Rowe added.
With no updates from Etsy following its decision, many sellers are uncertain about their future. “We’re left wondering if our account will be deactivated? Restricted? Or will they just remove our products? Who knows!” Rowe remarked.
Selling sex toys may have made them a target, but affected sellers warned that broader issues plague Etsy, affecting even small businesses not dealing in mature products. Concerns include being “dinged” in search rankings for not offering free shipping and navigating in a field increasingly populated by dropshippers, mass-produced products, and AI art. “This idea of a handmade marketplace no longer exists,” Downs noted.
In July, Etsy updated its seller handbook with new categories to reflect what it believes belongs on the platform, relaxing the “handmade,” “vintage,” or “craft supply” categories that listings were once required to fit into. Now, shops can label their products as “made by a seller,” “designed by a seller,” “sourced by a seller,” or “handpicked by a seller.”
