It’s illegal to import or possess them, but child-like sex dolls can be bought online. Each seizure is an opportunity to prevent real child sex abuse.
Importing these products is illegal. Possession is also a Commonwealth offence carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment.
In 2025, the Australian Border Force reported a renewed “disturbing rise” in attempted imports.
But focusing only on seizing prohibited goods risks overlooking something more important: the opportunity to detect escalating child exploitation behaviours before a child is harmed.
The case of Perth man Jason William Forbes shows the risks involved.
In 2024, Australian Border Force officers intercepted two bespoke dolls Forbes had ordered, specifying their size, hair and eye colour. According to the sentencing judge, they represented girls aged about 11 or 12. The interception prompted further investigation.
Police subsequently found extensive preparations to abduct and sexually abuse a child. These included searches of schools and childcare centres, research into restraint and incapacitation, a fake police badge, a map of possible locations and an attic fitted with acoustic-dampening material.
In February this year, Forbes was sentenced to seven years and five months’ imprisonment.
The dolls did not prove he would commit contact offending. But in this case, they were an early warning signal that led investigators to uncover evidence of a serious and imminent threat.
The Forbes case demonstrates what early detection can achieve. Better research, clearer classification standards and targeted officer training could help Australia identify high-risk cases sooner – and stop a customs problem becoming irreversible harm to a child.
Seven years is too little by far.
To attempt to change a pedophile will never work as this desire is hard wired.
For them nothing else will quite do.
Pedophilia is, in my opinion, part of the bell curve of human behaviour. Something to be removed for the safety of children.
Life long incarceration is the only safe option…this side of making it a capital crime.