Sex toys are illegal in Thailand, but why are they all over the streets?

Thailand, a land of Buddhism, a land of smiles, and a land of desire.

In recent years, the sales of sex toys in Thailand boomed a lot,but a fact that no one would expect is - in Thailand,the sales of sex toys, in fact, not legal!

In Bangkok, a sex toy vendor was arrested by the police on charges of "selling obscene materials" under the Thai Penal Code and "spreading harmful information to society" under the Consumer Protection Act...What a surprise, right?

So, in recent times, people in Thailand have suddenly started discussing the legal sale of "adult sex toys".

A few days ago, the Thai Facebook account Drama-addict posted the question "Should sex toys be legalized in Thailand?" The question was given to the Thai people to choose between two options to see how they would react.As a result, more than 20,000 Thai people voted and the results showed that 96% of Thai people were in favor of legalization, while only 4% were against it!

Erotic sex toys have long been classified as goods not allowed to be sold publicly in Thailand, and according to the relevant laws, except for a very few professional physiological health institutions with legal operating licenses, general merchants and individuals may not freely trade sex toys, and it is also illegal to import such items from overseas.

If you can't buy or sell, you can't advertise, and sex toys are prohibited from being printed in books, pictures, advertising photos, movies, photographs and other related publications.Once violation  , the penalty is also very strict.

According to the new law 246 and 244 of the Thai Customs Act of 2017 and the law 287 of the Penal Code, anyone who illegally imports, exports and sells such sexually adult toys without a business license will face imprisonment of not more than 3 years, a fine of not more than 60,000 baht (about US $2,000 ) or both!

Of course, the actual implementation of these laws and regulations do not seem to be taken seriously, Facebook also has a large number of Thai people open online sex toy stores selling such as masturbators, vibrators,wands,dildos, sex dolls, vibrating rings and other sex toys.

With the post, the topic of "legalizing sex toys in Thailand" became popular on the Thai internet, and Thai netizens were divided into two groups, expressing their tit-for-tat views on each other!

As for the Thai public media, they also seem to support the legalization of adult toys.
The Thai media "Manager Newspaper" said that in Japan, sex toys are considered to have the social factors of increasing the sexual experience of both sexes and reducing sexual crimes, and are therefore considered legal and can be freely bought and sold.

And China is the origin manufacturer country of more than 90% of the world's sex toys, the market can generate 100 billion yuan in annual sales of erotic toys!

Some netizens believe that the legalization of sex toys in Thailand will help reduce the probability of rape crimes in Thailand.Like Japan and other countries, Thailand usually has a large number of sex toy stores in places where there are many tourists.

In Bangkok's Chinatown near the "Klong Thom Center" (Klong Thom Center) is known for the large number of adult sex toy stores.The Manager newspaper also writes that some people are not able to release the pressure of love, so they choose to commit crimes and rape women, and there are many such cases, therefore, if the legalization of sex toys may help reduce the probability of rape crimes in Thailand.

Thailand's largest-selling newspaper, Thai Rak Thai, expressed a similar position."According to a survey of sex toy online stores‘’, the newspaper said: "Sex toys not only help to enhance the love between sexual partners, but also help single people! At the same time, today's erotic toy market has introduced a variety of multi-functional and innovative toy designs to meet the sexual needs of a variety of people, with the advancement of technology, erotic toys are also being played out in new ways!Media statistics also show that nine types of erotic sex toys are popular and sell best in Thailand, including masturbators, dildos and vibrators.