A model and Instagram influencer has described her horror at discovering a Chinese company had “stolen her identity” to create a sex doll.
In an appearance on This Morning Yael Cohen Aris, 25, claimed the Doll Studio model has been replicated from her social media, down to the smallest detail, including an identical small beauty mark beneath her lip.
The Isreali model went on to claim that the doll has been given her first name and the company has used footage from her Instagram to market it.
Hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield, who returned to the show today after an extended Christmas break, listened aghast as Yael said one of her one million Instagram followers alerted her to the doll’s existence.
Phillip said: “Legally we’re supposed to say it's alleged it looks like you, but it’s a bit blatant because they use photos and videos from your Instagram account to sell the thing. It’s even got your name!”
Holly added: “This really does come down to consent. This is your identity that’s being taken away and that’s a sex doll, so how does that feel seeing that?”
Yael replied saying she “doesn’t have anything against” the sex doll industry, agreeing that the main issue is her lack of knowledge and consent in the matter.
She said: “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 a doll from me.”
Yael has sought legal advice but insisted she would not accept an account of the profits, instead hoping the Doll Studio doll will be pulled from shelves.
She said: “It should get off the shelves. Maybe we can talk once that happens.
“I think learning a lesson is the best thing to come out of this story - just to try to bring a real conversation about our privacy if we want to share ourselves online.”
Phillip said that while they reached out to the company for comment multiple times, they did not receive a response.
Yael said the existence of the doll has not increased her following on social media, but when Holly asked if any part of her was flattered by the doll, she said that is the “positive side”.
“In everything that happens, I always try to see the bright side,” she said. “They did it without my consent, they use it for commercial use, it’s a sex doll - all these crazy things - but it does mean people find me attractive, so I guess I chose to see it as flattering.
“Everybody likes to feel attractive. They just took me - a random girl from Israel.”
Phillip said the “extraordinary” incident reminded him of his own experience of the use of his, Holly Willoughby and Martin Lewis’s faces for online advertising without their consent.
He said: “It happens in this country - more with online advertising.
“My face being used for online advertising we have absolutely nothing to do with.
“But for a company to blatantly make you as a sex doll is a whole jump in a different direction.
“There definitely does need to be some worldwide legislation on this - although good luck with that one, because it’s going to be tricky.”
