The second-hand clothing platform Vinted recently removed sexually explicit advertisements after receiving complaints from users.
The advertisement was for DramaWave, a mobile app that produces short-form scripted stories for social platforms. The ad images often showed private body parts, intimate actions, lingerie, and allusions to sexual activity.
Responding to complaints about sexual content, a Vinted spokesperson said the platform has a “zero-tolerance policy for unsolicited sexual communications and the promotion of sexual content.”
“This includes prohibiting sexually explicit advertisements on our platform,” they said.
Vinted is a second-hand clothing platform with 65 million users across Europe. The Lithuanian platform has no age-verification procedure, which means children and teenagers could see pornographic material without proving they are over 18.
A psychologist at PSY ME and Vinted user in London, Candy Nguyen, criticised Vinted for charging users while still showing unproperly filtered ads.
Nguyen states: “If the user is a teenager, this is not okay.” She said exposing minors to sexually explicit information on the Internet increases the risk of anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and risky sexual behavior. Nguyen insists she will not let her young siblings or nieces use Vinted when there are ads like DramaWave.
Vinted confirmed the DramaWave adverts have now been blocked from 18th November.
However, this is not the first time Vinted has faced accusation of sexual content.
In mid-November, French authorities investigated Vinted after some user accounts were found directing people to pornographic websites.
The problem started when some sellers posting photographs of swimwear or lingerie were found to be luring viewers to their personal pages on adult platforms such as OnlyFans.
In July, a young female Vinted user named Mina said on social media that her pictures from Vinted had apparently been copied and then posted on “porn sites”.
In the interview with the German news outlet Der Spiegel, she said she received many of abusive messages via Vinted’s messaging system including: “Hello, I’d like to buy this item of clothing, but I’d like you to try it on without underwear first”, and: “Can I also buy you?”
Mina said she never posted nude photos online and did not have an account on any pornography sites. However, someone found her name and images on sex-focused German forums, with links back to her Vinted and Instagram accounts.
Mina is not alone.
A Telegram channel called Girls of Vinted launched in June 2024, featuring over 1,000 pictures taken from the marketplace platform and placed in a sexualised context.
Before the Telegram channel was shut down earlier this year, it had gained 2,000 subscribers, mostly men.
Vinted has reported these groups to Telegram and unactived the accounts leaving rude comments on its platform. The company spokesperson said: “We are aware of the challenges online platforms face in addressing inappropriate behaviour and take our members’ negative experiences very seriously. Safeguarding our members is an ongoing priority.”
However, this phenomenon continues to recur in many places. In October, the UK broadcaster Channel 4 revealed a similar website called Vinted Sluts.
Posting on the X platform, user Miskotaaaa criticised those using images of Vinted women for pornography. She wrote: “It’s not desire for the woman, but the act of taking what was never offered—the eroticisation of violation.”