Hasbro Trolls Doll is the Latest Example of Entertainment Industry’s Complicity in Child Sexual Exploitation

LOS ANGELES (August 13, 2020) – The Parents Television Council called out Hasbro for producing and marketing a Trolls doll that includes a button between the female doll’s legs that, when pushed, will make it laugh and giggle. Hasbro has since pulled the doll from store shelves.

“In my seventeen-plus years at the PTC, this may well be the vilest thing I’ve seen. A doll based on a children’s movie – DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls World Tour – includes a button on the female figure’s genital area that, when pushed, will cause the doll to giggle and say ‘wee.’ This is a frightening example of the grotesque sexual exploitation of children that is increasingly rampant in today’s entertainment environment, and is just the latest symptom of a cancerous disease that we need to fight as hard as we’re fighting COVID-19,” said PTC President Tim Winter.

“The Trolls franchise has especially pushed adult content into its films and TV specials, and has already created a level of distrust among parents. Hasbro, which produces and markets the Trolls doll, describes itself as a ‘global play and entertainment company.’ The company appears to be following others in entertainment production and distribution who seek to normalize, and profit from, the sexual exploitation of children. Nearly a decade ago, the PTC produced a research report exposing a troubling trend of sexualizing teenaged girls on primetime TV. That trend has only grown, and today television programs and films such as Big Mouth and Desire portray children engaged in explicit sexual situations. Those programs, and teen-targeted programs such as Euphoria, Sex Education and 13 Reasons Why, have created a more accepting sexualized culture that desensitizes kids while fomenting pedophiles like Jeffrey Epstein.

“In pulling the Troll doll from the shelf, Hasbro called its product a mistake, but that doesn’t pass the laugh-test. The toy industry works closely in conjunction with the studios to produce and profit from children’s characters, and it takes dozens of corporate decision-makers to develop a consumer product from a motion picture. Anyone and everyone involved in Hasbro’s decision to add a button on a female doll’s genital area should be fired.

“I hope this wretched and disgusting matter can, in some way, serve as a tipping point which leads to the end of sexually exploiting children – or for that matter, the end of sexually exploiting anyone – for entertainment.”