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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Anna Tims

Amazon selling a tasteless Christmas baby outfit is Claus for concern

Amazon logo on a mobile phone
Amazon removed the listing in the UK and US for ‘violating our content guidelines’. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

I found a baby outfit (sizes from newborn to five years) on Amazon bearing the phrase “Santa’s favourite ho”.

This isn’t just a tasteless mistake – it’s a failure of corporate responsibility and consumer protection. A corporation this large should have systems that prevent sexualised or exploitative language being associated with items for children.

KG London

“A comfortable addition to your child’s wardrobe,” read the blurb in the listing on the UK and US websites.

Amazon won’t tell me how many parents have leapt at the chance to identify their infant with the sexualised slur, but it did immediately remove the listing on both sides of the Atlantic for “violating our content guidelines”.

Surely it has devised algorithms to filter out offensive products? And so it has, it claims. “If we discover a product was undetected by our controls, we remove the product immediately and refine our controls,” a spokesperson said.

We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions.

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