“Don't let the robots walk our dogs, but it's ok for them to do our homework”:children's perceptions, fears, and hopes in social robots

Rubegni, Elisa and Malinverni, Laura and Yip, Jason (2022) “Don't let the robots walk our dogs, but it's ok for them to do our homework”:children's perceptions, fears, and hopes in social robots. In: Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2022. Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2022 . ACM, New York, pp. 352-361. ISBN 9781450391979

Abstract

Children's fears and hopes regarding technology play a crucial role in influencing its development, impact, and social acceptance. Although studies investigate children's perceptions of social robots, there is a need to better understand how hopes and fears influence children's views of the future. In this paper, we present the outcomes of a study in which we explored 60 children's (aged 8-14) perceptions of social robots using ten fictional scenarios. From data analysis, we elicited four major themes that become the pillars of a model that represent children's perception of social robots (agency, comprehension, socioemotional features, and physicality). The model shows the complex and often paradoxical nature of children's acceptance (hope) and rejection (fear) of social robots in their lives. Our outcome provides the foundations of a new responsible approach in analyzing and designing social robots for children using hopes and fear as a lens.