Let us make robots “Think in child!”: How children conceptualize fairness, inclusion, and privacy with social robots

Abstract

Under UNICEF’s framework on children’s rights and AI, we explore children’s priorities and concerns regarding the integration of social robots in everyday life. We conducted a series of four workshops in various children’s communities focused on introducing children to their rights with AI, fairness and non-discrimination, inclusion, and privacy within the context of child–robot interactions. Workshops performed in a middle school showed how children prioritize their rights and use their conceptualization of fairness, inclusion, and privacy to inform social robot design. Children revealed their concerns over inaccessibility of robotic sensors and designed more inclusive robots with customized personalities for the home and classroom. They also expressed discretion in which information they share with robots and additional third parties. This work highlights children’s ability to integrate social robots into their life and makes recommendations for researchers on how to design robots with children’s rights and priorities in mind.