Companion Robots and the Emotional Development of Children

In this paper, we examine the design facets of a companion robot’s behaviour that may have a bearing on whether children will become well-adjusted adults. Though we will examine several types of design features and their potential effects on children, the unifying theme of our exploration will be our focus on the impact of child-robot interaction (CRI) on children’s development and their future welfare. To a large degree, we will analyse how encoding robots with a particular type of ‘personality’ may affect the emotional development of children. We will integrate into our discussion commonly embraced ethical principles such as beneficence and nonmaleficence; our discussion is also influenced by elements of the capabilities approach as articulated by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen. Robots designed to serve as companions for children can range from rather simple devices that a child can use as a toy during playtime, such as My Keepon, to those that can engage in conversation or other relatively sophisticated activities. Included at the latter end of this spectrum is Kismet, a robot with an expressive voice and face that encourages interaction with humans and is capable of learning through this interaction. Embedded in the term ‘companion’ is the notion that at least some portion of a child’s, or other user’s, care will be entrusted to the robot. Arguably, there are advantages to pairing a child with a robotic companion during playtime or while interacting