As the use of sex robots becomes increasingly common, specialists warn about the moral and ethical issues associated with this phenomenon, which need to be addressed.
Kent Law School Professor Robin Mackenzie, who specializes in areas such as robotics and the ethical and legal relations between humans and robots, believes that the advent of increasingly lifelike “sexbots” calls for a change in the way people think about sex, morals and the legal status of these artificial concubines, The Express wrote.
However, sentient, self-aware sex robots created to engage in emotional and sexual intimacy with humans fly in the face of this time-tested notion, she pointed out.
She added that even though the sex robots look like humans and act as intimate sexual partners, they can’t simply be categorized as either things or animals.
That being said, recent technological advancements meant that sex robots can now have realistic, lifelike characteristics and functionality.
"Ethicists, lawmakers and manufacturers treat robots as things, but future sex robots are more than things,” Professor Mackenzie emphasized.
Noel Sharkey, a co-author of the report “Our Sexual Future With Robots,” released by the Foundation for Responsible Robotics, believes that one highly controversial area that people are proposing sex robots to prevent sex crimes, such as rape.
"The idea is robots would resist your sexual advances so that you could rape them," said Sharkey, adding that “Some people say it's better they rape robots than rape real people. There are other people saying this would just encourage rapists more.
Even more concerning, however, are child sex robots and sex dolls, which are already being made and shipped by a company in Japan.
Few people believe, however, that child “love dolls” could help in therapeutic prevention to stop pedophiles offending or reoffending, the report said.
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