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Trolls Doll Pulled After Complaints It Promotes Abuse Due to Location of Laughing Button

A doll based on the children’s movie Trolls is being pulled from shelves. The toy came under fire after online watchdogs blasted the toy for allegedly promoting abuse and pedophilia.

On Wednesday, Hasbro, the company responsible for making the toy, announced it began removing the doll from shelves. The toy in question is the “Trolls World Tour Giggle and Sing Poppy.”

Hasbro released the toy in March of this year. It’s based on the Dreamworks film released in 2016.

Those taking issue with the toy point out a button located between the doll’s legs. After pressing the button, which is where genitalia would be on a person, it laughs and makes other noises.

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The Petition to Remove the Hasbro Trolls Doll Toy

To bring attention to the issue, user Jessica McManis started a Change.org petition. As of Friday morning, the petition garnered more than 296k signatures.

“Our society is conditioning our children to think pedophilia is ok,” McManis captions the post. “This Trolls World Tour doll named Poppy has a button on her private area under her skirt. When you push this button on the doll’s private she gasps and giggles. This is not okay for a child’s toy!”

McManis continues by writing: “What will this toy make our innocent, impressionable children think? That it’s fun when someone touches your private area? That pedophilia and child molestation are ok?”

A number of users weighed in on the petition to share their thoughts on the controversial toy. “It’s sending the wrong message,” one signee writes. “Whoever produced this doll has serious problems.” Furthermore, another writes, “Grooming our children to think that pedophilia is fun or funny not ok!!! This is sick.”

A spokeswoman from Hasbro, Julie Duffy, released a statement in regards to the issue. “This feature was designed to react when the doll was seated, but we recognize the placement of the sensor may be perceived as inappropriate,” Duffy tells the Providence Journal. “This was not intentional and we are happy to provide consumers with a replacement Poppy doll of similar value through our consumer care team. We are in the process of removing the item for purchase.”

Following the Hasbro announcement, McManis expressed her satisfaction with Hasbro’s decision to remove the toy. “I didn’t expect my petition to blow up like this! I’m so happy it did! They recalled the doll today,” she tweeted. “There’s no way someone at Hasbro didn’t think that it was weird when deciding to create this doll like that.”

[H/T New York Post]

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