Baby 'auction' draws fire
- Source: Global Times
- [04:18 October 16 2009]
- Comments
"As taobao does not allow the listing of any human beings on the site, the system will inspect relevant information automatically and block the page and the seller," a spokesperson at taobao.com told the newspaper.
The incident triggered hot discussions.
Some Web users condemned the parents' action as "irresponsible and cruel," while others saw it as a joke.
Some lawyers said the online auction site should carry out better monitoring of items put up for auction.
"The website should take the responsibility to inspect the products on sale. They cannot only rely on a computer system or software for the monitoring, which is only sensitive to certain words or pictures," said Guo Xu, a lawyer from Beijing-based Yuecheng Law Firm.
"The price reflects the subjective intent so we can judge whether it's a crime or not based on one's motivation," said the lawyer, "If the money is huge and constitute a deal then it's human trafficking, which is forbidden and illegal in our country."
It was not the first case in the world.
A 10-year-old British girl put her 61-year-old grandmother up for auction on eBay.com in September. The bidding reached more than £20,000before the auction was shut down.
A man surnamed Li who used an online advertisement to try to sell his 1-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter for 60,000 yuan ($8,790) in cash in Xiamen, Fujian Province earlier this year had been put behind bars for 17 years.
