French investigative authorities have launched a preliminary investigation after suspicions that child trafficking was taking place on Vinted, Europe's largest secondhand trading platform, spread across social media.
According to British daily The Telegraph, the suspicions arose as Vinted users reported a series of suspicious posts on the platform. The posts in question listed secondhand toys at abnormally high prices and included children's ages and physical details in the description fields.
One post listing a rabbit plush toy for more than 1,000 euros (about 1.75 million won) carried the description "3-year-old girl, 91 cm tall, 13 kg, an obedient child." Another high-priced toy listing carried the description "13 years old, shy and anxious personality."
After screen-recordings of the posts spread rapidly on TikTok and X, Sarah El Haïry, France's High Commissioner for Children, formally reported them to authorities. "The perpetrators are organizing," she said, stressing the platform's responsibility. "It is better to follow a strict principle of prevention than to leave even a single child to the perpetrators."
Lithuania-based Vinted fully denied the allegations. "Our internal review found no evidence linking the posts to child trafficking activity," the company told AFP. It explained that the ages listed in the posts refer to the recommended user age for the toys, and that the high prices appear to reflect collector value or provocation and bargaining tactics. Some sellers who became targets of reports also told AFP they had merely sold actual toys.
Similar controversies have occurred before. According to U.S. outlet Complex and others, in 2020 American furniture company Wayfair was caught up in a human trafficking conspiracy theory after high-priced storage cabinets and pillows were found to bear the same names as missing children. But after verification by media, fact-checkers and anti-trafficking organizations, it was concluded to be a baseless claim.
This is not Vinted's first controversy either. The Telegraph noted that in 2023, suspicions arose that high-priced secondhand children's clothing was being used to conceal a child prostitution ring, and that last year, reports were filed of sexual content being traded under the pretext of selling swimsuits and lingerie, prompting French authorities to look into the matter.
