Robot Abuse and Robot Addiction: A Negative Aspect of the Relationship between Robots and Children

Abstract

This paper focuses on children’s abusive behaviors toward robots (i.e., robot abuse) and addiction for communicating with robots (i.e., robot addiction) as a negative aspect of the relationship between robots and children in a future society in which robots will have their own bodies and the functions of autonomous decision-making and behaviors will pervasively act in humans’ daily life such as home, schools, hospitals, restaurants, and stations. How robot abuse and addiction can happen and what negative influences these phenomena then have on children are discussed. Finally, the paper proposes how adults and society should correspond for these problems to prevent children from experiencing these negative aspects.