Stephanie Barnes
While posting your selfies on Instagram, you’re probably not too worried about your image being used to create a sex doll, right? But according to Yael Cohen Aris, that’s exactly what happened to her.
Aris, a programmer and model from Israel, has accused a sex doll company of creating a doll based on her IG photos.
The company being accused is Irontech Dolls, and Aris alleged they are also promoting the doll with her name and photos. Aris said the doll not only looks like her but it also mirrors a distinctive beauty mark she has on her bottom lip.
“I found out that a big company made a SEX DOLL about me WITHOUT my permission or me knowing,” she wrote on Instagram.
“No it’s not a joke, It’s real. They even named the doll ‘Yael.’ I am still shocked. don’t really know what to do…You probably saw on my stories that it came out on TV shows in my country, And It’s time to share it with you guys too.”
In a series of Instagram photos, Aris shared photos of the doll and screenshots of the company’s promotional posts.
She claims the doll is being promoted in online forums using the model’s own real-life images and listed under the name “Yael.”
While appearing on This Morning today, Aris made it clear she had no issues with the industry but was outraged by the fact that her image was used without consent.
“I don’t have anything against the sex doll industry, the problem here is they did it without my consent, without my knowledge. It’s double wrong because it’s connected to my identity—it’s not just a doll that looks like me, they never hid the fact it’s developed from me,” she explained.
Since being on Instagram, Aris has gained a following of over one million people. She said it was one of her followers who initially brought the doll to her attention.
“I received a message from one of my followers. I opened the link which led me to some forum. At the time they were speaking about my prototypes and a few months later it was a sex doll for sale, then I realized the scale of it and what was going on,” she said.
Aris is now demanding the product be removed from the shelves, and she’s seeking help to take legal action against the company.