Campaign Against Sex Robots: Yep, It’s a Real Thing

LONDON—Virtual reality, teledildonics and the like have been big buzzwords in the adult entertainment industry for years. Realistic love dolls have been on the market for some time now: the Roxxxy doll from True Companion and Real Dolls have been on the show floor of many an AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. But now, an organization wants to put a stop to all of that. Enter the Campaign Against Sex Robots. Yep, this is a real organization trying to put a stop to what it fears will have a “detrimental effect on society.” The campaign was launched following the presentation of a paper at Ethicomp 2015, a conference designed to provide a forum to discuss ethical issues around computers. Rather than look at “sex robots”—or love dolls enhanced with electronics and possibly artificial intelligence—as the novelty they are, the campaign lists its concerns as “the development of sex robots further objectifies women and children” and “the development os sex robots will further reduce human empathy that can only be developed by an experience of mutual relationship” among others. All in all, it’s a pretty fancy way of saying they seem to be scared shitless the robots will take over and completely do away with all human sexual relationships within about 50 years. Dr. Kathleen Richardson—a senior research fellow in the ethics of robotics at the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at DeMontfort University, U.K.—is the driving force behind the campaign. "Sex robots seem to be a growing focus in the robotics industry and the models that they draw on—how they will look, what roles they would play—are very disturbing indeed," she told the BBC. We don’t want to dismiss Richardson’s claims as silly, but it’s almost hard not to when some of the concerns listed on the CASR website could just as easily be applied to vibrators and a number of sex toys already in existence. While we are most likely decades away from love dolls equipped with AI, and it will take even longer for such devices to be priced at a cost for the average person to afford them, that’s not stopping the Campaign Against Sex Robots from asking for a ban on such creations. While we don’t doubt the need for conversations about ethics and “sex robots” at some point in the future, at this point it seems like the CASR is doing a whole lot of pearl-clutching over how other people might pursue sexual pleasure. Which reminds us of similar claims about studies on the societal hazards of porn consumption, promoted by the likes of Gail Dines and Morality in Media. Like the CASR's report, they produce hand-wringing and headlines, but ultimately reveal more about the bias of the researchers than the topics they purport to study.