CES 2019: Sex toy award revoked after device deemed 'immoral'

Device 'mimics all the sensations of a human mouth, tongue, and fingers', inventors claim

Jon Sharman
Wednesday 09 January 2019 10:53 GMT
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CES 2019: sex toy award revoked after device deemed 'immoral'

The organisers of CES 2019 have been forced to apologise after they revoked an innovation award given to a sex toy company because the device was deemed “immoral”.

Lora DiCarlo had been named an innovation “honoree” in CES’ robotics and drone category after putting forward its hands-free “Oré” vibrator, the company said in a statement.

The firm claimed the device contained ”micro-robotic technology that mimics all of the sensations of a human mouth, tongue, and fingers”, adding that it had been developed “in partnership with a top university robotics engineering laboratory” in Oregon.

The company’s small team “rejoiced and celebrated” at the news earlier this year, its statement continued.

However, bosses were told some time afterwards that the award had been rescinded and they would not be permitted to show off their invention at the annual tech show in Las Vegas, they claimed.

Lora DiCarlo cited CES organisers the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) as saying that “entries deemed by CTA in their sole discretion to be immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA’s image will be disqualified”.

The convention’s leaders later said the sex toy had not been eligible for an award in the first place.

Lora DiCarlo founder Lora Haddock said she thought the reasoning was “insulting and frankly ridiculous”.

She added: “A literal sex doll for men launched on the floor at CES in 2018.”

A CES spokesperson told Motherboard: “The product does not fit into any of our existing product categories and should not have been accepted for the innovation awards programme.

“CTA has communicated this position to Lora DiCarlo. We have apologised to the company for our mistake.”

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