Simply Elegant Glass has been selling handmade sex toys on Etsy for nearly a decade. In that time, the shop has made more than 7,000 sales and has amassed over 1,500 reviews, most of which are five-star. The Etsy store, which offers glass dildos, anal plugs and other insertable items, accounts for the majority of the small business’s total sales. But as of Monday, July 29, the majority of the shop’s catalog will no longer be allowed on the marketplace due to Etsy’s new restrictions surrounding sex toys.
The Adult Nudity and Sexual Content Policy, quietly published in late June as part of the platform's “house rules,” states that “Etsy prohibits the sale of sex toys that: are inserted into the body; are applied to the genitals; are designed to be inserted into genitals.” Among other things, it specifically prohibits sellers from selling “dildos, vibrators, anal plugs, sex dolls, and fleshlights.” The policy update, first spotted by To crush, came alongside a post on a community forum from Etsy's Head of Trust & Safety, Alice Wu Paulus, who wrote that it was designed to “reflect evolving industry standards and best practices so we can keep our users safe.”
The memo about the upcoming change said that in the coming weeks, Etsy would “communicate directly with sellers who may need to update their listing images to comply with the rules.” Enforcement would begin on July 29, it said, and non-compliant listings would be removed. But up until three weeks after the new policy was posted online, sellers who spoke to Engadget said they had never been contacted directly by Etsy. All learned of the ban through social media or other means.
Etsy didn't answer specific questions about the reasons behind its decision when contacted by Engadget, but a spokesperson said the change will only affect a tiny percentage of the platform's overall seller community. The only explanation provided in the policy change itself states that the site wants to ensure “content is appropriate for a wide audience.”
It’s been hailed as the final nail in the coffin for many adult-oriented businesses on Etsy. Multiple sellers described the past few years to Engadget as a struggle to exist and succeed on the platform. And with no alternative marketplace for handmade goods currently operating at Etsy’s scale, it feels like the only place to find such items “has essentially been removed from the internet,” according to Andy, a glassblower for Simply Elegant Glass who chose to only share his first name.
“If I want to find handmade products — unless I knew they existed through Etsy in advance — it’s incredibly hard to find them,” Andy said. They said they found advertising on Google “prohibitively expensive,” and that products from small businesses are often buried in search results. If someone were to search by product type alone, “I don’t think you could find them [Simply Elegant Glass] on Google,” said Andy.
Simply Elegant Glass launched its own website a few years ago and recently migrated to Shopify in an effort to become less reliant on Etsy. However, a recent post on X states that “the majority of our traffic still comes from Etsy searches.”
According to Andy, the platform is prone to allowing “more questionable sellers, people who don’t actually make the toys, dropshippers” and stores that would otherwise seem “in the face of the market.” [Etsy’s] Policy.” Dropshipping is an increasingly common practice in which businesses sell products that they don’t make or keep in stock themselves. Instead, they source the items from a third-party supplier once they receive orders, and the suppliers ship them to customers. Etsy has said that dropshipping is not allowed on the platform under most circumstances, but dropshippers have found a way around it anyway.
In addition to sex toys, Etsy's new policy bans the sale of all pornography, including vintage Playboy Magazines and any photographs or photorealistic depictions of sexual acts and genitals. Non-realistic artwork depicting sexual acts or genitals is allowed, but only under certain conditions: if sexual acts are depicted, there must be no visible genitals; if genitals are depicted, there must be no “sexual context.” Any material that combines family and sexual terms, for example, “slogans like 'Daddy's slut' or 'Stroke me mommy'” are also off-limits. However, Etsy will continue to allow certain sexual accessories, such as some BDSM gear and sex furniture.
Sellers who spoke to Engadget questioned why Etsy couldn't address the safety issues in some way other than a ban, such as creating a separate section for adults so that such material doesn't end up in inappropriate places.
The marketplace is one that both sellers and buyers rely on for custom-made sex products. Etsy “is really the only place I know of that you can go to support small businesses/makers in the alternative product space,” Alissa Milano, an Etsy patron who has purchased sex and kinky products on the platform, told Engadget in a DM.
In addition to its discoverability, the intuitive user interface makes it easy for shops to create listings and offer customization options, and it gives potential buyers a way to contact a seller if they have questions before placing an order. “I talk to most customers,” says Daniel Tyler, who runs the British adult site Secret Kink and sells on Etsy under the name SecretLatex. Often, he says, “they want little changes here and there. If you buy on Amazon, you’re not going to get that.” And because it costs so little to list products on Etsy — $0.20 per listing — it’s “probably the most accessible place to sell,” says Chelsea Downs, founder of New York Toy Collective. Emerging indie marketplaces like Spicerack that are trying to offer a better option for sellers in the adult space are a promising development, but they don’t yet have the reach or brand recognition of Etsy.
Even before the ban, adult sellers say they’ve faced account suspensions and seemingly arbitrary listing removals despite their best efforts to comply with Etsy’s existing rules around adult items. Or their shops would plummet in search results and never be able to climb back up. “It’s just getting worse and worse and worse,” said Downs, who notes that her shop’s sales on the platform are nowhere near what they once were.
Tyler says his Etsy shop was banned about six or seven years ago for unknown reasons. “I couldn’t get it open, no one responded,” he said. He rebranded and returned to the platform a few years later, and so far he’s “safe,” but says, “I get multiple warnings every week about policy violations.” The current Etsy shop sells latex and rubber kinkwear, as well as dildos, silicone penis sleeves and gender expression products like packers — prosthetics meant to mimic the bulge of a penis and testicles that can be worn under clothing. Some of his offerings are not allowed under the new rules.
Etsy sales accounted for 50 percent of Secret Kink’s revenue last year, and 30 percent the year before, Tyler said. “I’ve always told my partner that I’m afraid that at any moment they’re going to … close my store,” he said. Amid the economic hardships that small businesses are already facing, Tyler said the platform’s latest move is “just another kick in the face.”
Both Tyler and Downs also expressed concerns about how the changes could affect shoppers' access to gender-affirming products. Downs' store, which has made more than 12,000 sales in the seven years it's been listed on Etsy, also sells a mix of pleasure and gender expression products. According to an Etsy spokesperson, items like packers that would be classified as prosthetics and not toys (i.e., not intended for sexual acts) are still allowed, along with some sexual wellness products.
Etsy’s overhaul comes as age-verification laws gain traction in the U.S., with the stated goal of protecting minors from adult content online. In recent weeks, Pornhub has backed out of several states that have passed or are trying to pass such laws, rather than comply with verification methods that could pose a privacy risk to the site’s users. And sex was already a tough sell for online businesses before this movement. Payment processors like PayPal and Stripe have historically taken a hard line on the sale of adult products and content (remember when OnlyFans tried to ban porn to appease the banks?).
Whatever Etsy’s reasoning, affected sellers say they’re bracing for industry-wide ramifications. Matt Rowe, one of the owners of fantasy sex toy shop Odyssey Toys, said in an email that it will be a “devastating blow to so many” artisans. “There are some extremely talented people who are driving innovation and creating incredible work through their designs, and for many of them, their businesses could be taken down almost overnight.”
Rowe said he considers Odyssey “one of the lucky ones” because Etsy currently only accounts for about 20-25 percent of the company’s revenue — but the potential impact on its team of owners and employees, plus their families, is still “really concerning.” Odyssey moved to a larger office and hired new staffers earlier this year, Rowe said.
With no word from Etsy since the decision, many sellers said their futures are uncertain. “We’re wondering if our account will be deactivated? Limited? Or if they’ll just remove our products? Who knows!” Rowe said.
Selling sex toys may have put a target on their backs, but affected sellers warned that there are broader problems plaguing Etsy that will continue to hurt even small businesses that don’t sell adult products. Their complaints include being “dupped” in search results for not offering free shipping, and having to navigate a playing field vastly changed by an influx of dropshippers, mass-produced goods and AI-powered art. “This idea of a handmade marketplace doesn’t exist anymore,” Downs said.
In July, Etsy updated its seller handbook with new categories to reflect what it says belongs on the platform, loosening its grip on the “handmade,” “vintage,” or “craft supplies” categories that listings once had to fit into. Now, shops can choose to label their products as “made by a seller,” “designed by a seller,” “bought by a seller,” or “handpicked by a seller.”
