Legal restrictions on the production and use of sex-robots and sexual human rights - selected issues

• Author: Kamil Szpyt
• Pages: 459-474

459

Legal restrictions on the production

and use of sex-robots and sexual

human rights – selected issues1

Kamil Szpyt2

Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University

INTRODUCTION

The production of sex-robots, also known as sexbots3, is currently a relatively

small but dynamically developing industry4. It seems that the coronavirus

pandemic, which has been in place since the end of 2019, will further reinforce the

above mentioned trend. Commonly used personal protective equipment, restrictions

of movement, extinguishing social and cultural life - all this, however unintentionally,

is likely to deepen the difficulties of establishing closer human relations among many

1 The reasearch was financed from the funds earmarked for Statutory Activities of the Faculty

WPAiSM/PRAWO/SUB/10/2020.

2 PhD, Assistant Professor, Private Law Institute, Faculty of Law, Administration and

International Relations, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Krakow University, kszpyt@afm.edu.pl. ORCID:

0000-0002-2307-8789.

3 See: ANDREALLO, Fiona, 2019, Robots With Benefits: How Sexbots Are Marketed as

Companions, In: The Conversation [online], avaliable at: https://theconversation.com/robots-with-

benefits-how-sexbots-are-marketed-as-companions-126262 [Access: 25th December 2020]; for

stylistic purposes, terms “sex robot” and “sexbot” will be used interchangeably.

4 According to some reports, the entire sextech industry (which includes the production of sex

robots) should be worth about $122 billion by 2024 (PHAN, T. Trung, 2020, What will sex robots do to

society?, In: The Hustle [online], avaliable at: https://thehustle.co/11122020-sex-robots/ [Access: 25th

December 2020]).

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people. To this must be added the frequent restriction of contacts with life partners

and the fear of a potential infection. As a result, many people may head towards digi-

sexuality, with particular emphasis on finding specific substitutes for their living

partners in the form of sex-robots5. Similar theses should not come as a surprise:

according to some studies, as many as 49% of the Americans believe that over the

next fifty years, intercourse with sex-robots will be the norm, whereas every fourth

man and every tenth woman already are willing to consider such an option.6 The

analysis of selected works of culture also indicates that this type of behavior can

be a secret fantasy shared by quite a large group of people7.

Of course, there are also opponents of similar practices. It is worth

mentioning Campaign Against Sex Robots, initiated by Kathleen Richardson8.

Her followers believe that sex robots increase the objectification of women and

develop negative patterns of behavior in men9.

It is rather unlikely that similar allegations would lead to a total ban on the

production and use of sex-robots. At the same time, these allegations cannot be

5 See: DÖRING, Nicola, 2020, How Is the COVID-19 Pandemic Affecting Our Sexualities? An

Overview of the Current Media Narratives and Research Hypotheses, Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol.

49, p. 2770; DUBÈ, Simon, and ANCTIL, Dave, SANTAGUIDA, Maria, 2020, Cybersex and erotic

robots: The coronavirus pandemic may make us more ‘digisexual’, In: Scroll.in [online], avaliable at:

https://scroll.in/article/967581/cyber-sex-and-erotic-robots-the-coronavirus-pandemic-may-make-us-

more-digisexual [Access: 25th December 2020].

6 BAME, Yael, 2017, 1 in 4 men would consider having sex with a robot, In: YouGov America

[online] avaliable at: https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2017/10/02/1-4-men-

would-consider-having-sex-robot, [Access: 25th December 2020]; in study conducted by M. Scheutz

and T. Arnold, the level of acceptance of having sexual relations with robots is even higher: SCHEUTZ,

Matthias and ARNOLD, Thomas, 2016. Are We Ready for Sex Robots?, ACM/IEEE Int. Conf. Hum.-

Rob. Interact. ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, April, pp. 351–358.

7 See: “A.I.” (SPIELBERG, Steven, 2001), “Ex Machina” (GARLAND, Alex, 2015),

“Westworld” (NOLAN, Jonathan, 2016).

8 See: Campaign Against Sex Robots [online], avaliable at: https://campaignagainstsexrobots.

org/ [Access: 25th December 2020]; Campaign Against Sex Robots, In: YouTube [online video]

avaliable at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSx1xKmB025uPBGZg3z7iUQ/videos [Access: 25th

December 2020].

9 SHARKEY, Noel, VAN WYNSBERGHE, Aimee, ROBBINS, Scott and HANCOCK,

Eleanor, Our Sexual Future with Robots. A Foundation for Responsible Robotics Consultation

Report, In: Responsible Robotics [online], avaliable at: https://responsiblerobotics.org/wp-content/

uploads/2017/11/FRR-Consultation-Report-Our-Sexual-Future-with-robots-1-1.pdf [Access: 25th

December 2020], p. 77; RASMUSSON, Ida, 2019, The Regulation of Sex Robots An argumentative

study regarding the possible risks sex robots expose women and children to, In: DiVa [online], avaliable

at: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1483628/FULLTEXT01.pdf [Access: 25th December

2020], p. 7 et seq.