We must confront the morality of sex robots in advance.
From the Drudge Report to the New York Times, sex robots are fast becoming part of the national conversation about sex and the future of relationships. Behind the headlines, a number of companies are developing robots designed to provide companionship and sexual pleasure to humans — some of which are already on the market.
Sex toys and dolls are often sold in hidden shops, hidden in closets. In contrast, sex robots are likely to go mainstream. According to a 2017 survey, nearly half of americans believe that sex with robots will become a common practice within 50 years.
I’m interested in the legal and policy issues behind sex robots. How can we avoid these risks? How does intimacy with a sex robot affect the human brain? Is it ethical to have sex with a childish robot? So what exactly is a sex robot?
There is no universally accepted definition of “sex robot”. “It may not seem important, but it is actually a serious problem for any proposal to govern or ban them.
The main problem is how to tell the difference between a sex robot and a “sexy robot”. Does a robot deserve the label “sex robot” just because it is attractive to humans and can provide sexual satisfaction?
It’s easy to define them as sex toys, focusing on their primary purpose. In Alabama, the only U.S. state that still has a complete ban on the sale of sex toys, the government defines them as devices “primarily intended to stimulate human reproductive organs.”
The problem with applying this definition to sex robots is that they increasingly provide more services than sex. Sex robots aren’t just dolls with microchips. They use self-learning algorithms to motivate their partners.
Consider the mark 1 robot, which resembles the actress Scarlett Johansson. It’s often labeled a sex robot, but when I interviewed its creator, Ricky Ma Tsz Hang, he was quick to clarify that the Mark 1 wasn’t a sex robot. Instead, the robots aim to assist with a variety of tasks, from preparing children’s lunches to accompanying elderly relatives.
Of course, humans are adept at navigating sexual and non-sexual contexts. What if robots could do the same? How do we conceptualize and control a robot that can switch from “play with kids” mode during the day to “play with adults” mode at night?
Thorny legal issues
In a landmark case in 2003, the Supreme Court struck down Texas’s sex-related laws and established what some scholars call the right to sexual privacy.
Currently, states are divided on restrictions on the sale of sex toys. So far, Alabama’s ban remains in place, but I suspect all sex toy bans will eventually be repealed. If so, it seems unlikely that states will restrict the sale of sex robots on a large scale.
However, the ban on sex robots for children may be different.
It is unclear whether anyone in the United States already has a child-like sex robot. But child sex robots helped push a bipartisan bill through the house of representatives, the IC robots Act, or CREEPER. The bill was introduced in 2017 and passed unanimously six months later. State politicians will surely follow suit, and we are likely to see many attempts to ban child-sex robots. But it is unclear whether the bans will survive constitutional challenges.
On the one hand, the United States Supreme Court held that banning child pornography does not violate the first amendment because the state has a compelling interest in limiting the impact of child pornography on the children depicted. However, the us Supreme Court also found that the 1996 child pornography prevention act was too broad in its attempt to ban “child pornography that does not depict real children”.
Childish sex robots are robots, not humans. As with virtual child pornography, the development of child sex robots does not require any interaction with children. Others, however, argue that child sex robots could have serious detrimental effects, forcing governments to act.
Are sex robots safe?
Perhaps one day, sex robots will become sentient. But for now, they are still just one product.
An almost entirely overlooked issue is how the Consumer Product Safety Commission should regulate hazards related to sex robots. Existing sex products are not well regulated, which is a concern given that sex robots can harm users in a number of ways.
For example, danger lurks in a seemingly innocent scene in which a sex robot and a person hold hands and kiss. What if the lips of sexy robots are made of lead paint or other toxic substances? What if the five-man robot accidentally bumps into a human finger in a display of passion?
We need to worry not only about physical injuries, but also about information security. For example, just as human partners learn by remembering what words are comforting and what touches are comforting, sex robots may store and process large amounts of intimate information. What are the rules to ensure that this data is private? How vulnerable are sex robots to hackers? Can states use sex robots as surveillance devices for sex offenders?
Sex robots in cities
Whether and how governments regulate sex robots will depend on what we know about “the impact of sex robots on individuals and society” or hypothetical situations.
In 2018, the Houston city council made headlines when it issued a decree banning the operation of the nation’s first so-called robot “brothel.” At a community meeting, one attendee warned, “this kind of business will destroy our neighbors’ homes, families and finances and cause massive community unrest in the city.”
But dire predictions like this are pure speculation. There is no evidence that the introduction of sex robots will affect individuals or society.
For example, would a man using a child-sex robot be more or less likely to harm a real human child? Will robots be a substitute for human relationships, or will they be like sex toys? Will sex robots fill the emotional void of the lonely and unattached? Just as pilots use virtual flight simulators before flying real airplanes, can virgins use sex robots to have sex safely before attempting real sex?
In other words, there are far more questions about sex robots than there are about sex robots. Although empirical research will be difficult until sex robots become commonplace, the government has asked researchers to urgently begin exploring these themes. Otherwise, we could see a lot of government decisions based solely on assumptions and fear of machines controlling humans.
Brave New World
An interesting question for me is how the current taboo on sex robots will fade over time.
There was a time, not so long ago, when people who were attracted to people of the same sex would have been embarrassed to make that fact public. Today, society is similarly ambivalent about the ethics of bisexuality. Will there be a time in the not-too-distant future when humans attracted to robots will happily announce their relationship with machines?
No one knows the answer to this question. But I know sex robots are likely to enter the U.S. market soon, and it’s important to be prepared for that reality. Imagine that human-controlled robot law isn’t just a law professor’s hypothesis or science fiction. It’s a new challenge to the real world. I hope humans have a law to follow in this matter.