Child sex dolls, category A weapons: Shein has crossed the line. But beyond the tip of the iceberg of this vile illicit product, Shein arrives in Europe at 130 packages per second, with no real control. The result? 8 out of 10 products are non-compliant and harm us. Toys that choke children, chargers that explode in their hands, cream that burns their faces: this is the hidden side of a wonderful business.
The country reacted. Like Wish before it, Shein is now under scrutiny. Ordered to obey or leave France. There’s a sheriff in the wild digital world. And it worked.
But the real danger lies elsewhere. Quieter, more dangerous. It is no longer measured in packets, but in clicks. We spend 4 hours and 40 minutes a day in an algorithm designed to maintain lack, desire, and frustration. A digital shooting space where every interaction leads to the next, to sell better. Platforms exploit our weaknesses and capture our attention from a very young age.
Shein and TikTok, Amazon and Instagram: one creates a need, the other fulfills it. This toxic pairing locks us into digital dependency.
Artificial intelligence further strengthens these mechanisms: it models our tastes, behavior and decisions. The teenager was at the forefront. Lack of perspective, more social influence, fragility, permanent hyperconnection: it all combines to create huge psychological and commercial dependency.
The goal is not to slow down digital technology, but to regain control to protect young people from its excesses. To turn AI and digital technologies into levers of protection and power, in the service of our autonomy.
Because in the economic war between China and the United States, Europe cannot be satisfied with being a platform for cheap and wayward products from other countries, a way out of a Chinese domestic market that cannot absorb its own production.
There are three priorities that should guide public action:
- Firmness: enforcing our laws as quickly as foreign companies adapt to avoid them. Europe has set the framework, we must speed up its implementation.
- Transparency: understanding and managing the algorithms that determine our digital lives so that everyone understands what is being suggested to them, and why.
- Innovation: building and supporting European AI and digital alternatives to strengthen our industrial competitiveness and strategic autonomy.
