Robots Looking After Children

[Donkey]

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5810982.ece

Is it right to let robots child mind children?


Can robots provide the right parenting and influence that young children need?
Can they monitor behavior properly, and provide the appropriate punishments if possible?
Should children be raised by humans?
Should children be left alone in the company of a device rather than a human and how do you feel about the safety of this?

I think that children should be parented by parents rather than robots. Robots cannot provide the correct parenting, they don't have minds so they can't understand right from wrong. The closer a child is to their parents in childhood, the closer they'll be when they grow up. Who wants to be close to a robot?

[Θάνατος]

WTF is this world coming to.

Wow i just don't see how a robot can watch kids, talk about lazy parenting skills here.

[Donkey]

With the growing number of teenage parents or just young parents that don't have the time though, surely this is the easier option?

[Whisper]

we're not there yet
once we've cracked the AI equation then ya absolutely I would have no problem with a friendly extremely patient and protective AI looking after my child. They can be programmed to monitor nutritional needs, they can teach the child, they can have medical expertise to mend injuries, they'd be more then willing to play games all day and give the child there undivided attention...yada yada yada

I would trust a robot over a human babysitter

[Hyper]

No...

Children need human attention..

Children who grow up without having parents who read to them, teach them things like numbers through play and stuff like that grow up to be stoopid.

And until a robot can do all of that... No..

And when it can, it can only be a babysitter for an afternoon, but not for my kid.. The horrible luck I have with technology would leave me to believe in my paranoid mind that most probably the robot could malfunction and drop on my child or something else ridicilous

[Camazotz]

Not yet, but soon enough, robots will replace pets and people. Unlike most people, I embrace technology and accept it as an inevitability. This will be an improvement to modern society. However, I would not trust a robot watching my kids just yet.

[Sapphire]

It would be a great alternative to a babysitter at night.
But I feel that the attachment to another human in early childhood is too important to leave a child under AI supervision a large portion of the time.

[Death]

An AI-dependant robot would never be the same as the real thing. A child could not interact with a robot like they could with a human and it could malfunction too easily and I really don't think that we have the technology to even begin. The perfect (or almost so) design is humans themselves and I would never entrust my child to a machine even if we did have advanced AI.

[quartermaster]

I could not trust my child with a robot due to the possibility of defect or malfunction. In such a situation, I would have no one but myself to blame, and I could not bear such a load. I believe robots are an economic and consumer reality, and thus I understand they have domestic uses in the future, but I cannot trust the most advanced robot with my child. I cannot trust a robot to communicate with my child on a level I deem suitable, to emotionally connect with a child who needs it at that stage of development more than ever and above all, to ensure the safety of my child. I believe the risks involved in allowing a robot to watch a child to be too great, and thus I could never allow my child to be in such a situation. I must reiterate though, I believe robots have a tremendous future and will be a great household commodity, but I could never trust a commodity with the life of my child.

[Trickster]

A robot only has so much intelligence that can be programmed into itself. As we go along maybe its intelligence will grow on its own and become nearly as equal as human but it wont be completly human. Their intelligence is programmed.
Like an old saying goes "You put trash in, trash comes out" A robot can only do so much i think a parent should look after their own children. Until a robot has wants, needs, fears and memories and creative skills, i wouldnt think a robot is fit to take care of a child.

[Buddy]

I am taking a class on child growth and development and we just so happened to learn today that children (especially younger children) need special attention, not a robot but human interaction. They need to be taught fine motor skills and all sorts of stuff.

[INFERNO]

I wouldn't want it because the robots are unable to provide the proper emotional attachments and they may be unable to compute what to do in certain situations. Perhaps if AI progressed a lot more and the robots were able to provide the emotional and developmental needs then I'd be willing for only a short amount of time. If the kids are very young, then they may be unable to discern human from robot. Ideally, I'd use the robots as baby-sitters when the kid is old enough to know human from robot and is able to take care of itself a bit. The robot would do activities such as cooking, cleaning up, etc... . When that time comes, the robot is going to know a whole lot more about medical care than the average teenage babysitter will. The robot perhaps could monitor the kid's vitals, show proper psychological nutrition, etc... . But until that time comes, if and when I have a kid, I'll stick with a human baby-sitter.

[dstnyisurs]

I am not entrusting any child of mine to a machine. I've seen computer fuckups and I don't want to subject a childs safety and development to such.

[INFERNO]

I am not entrusting any child of mine to a machine. I've seen computer fuckups and I don't want to subject a childs safety and development to such.

You've also seen the numerous screw-ups that humans have made and the atrocities they've committed, right? There's Hitler, there's an enormous list of serial killers, there's 9/11, etc... . So if you don't trust computers because they screw up, do you trust a child in the hands of a species that's notorious for being violent, destructive, etc...?

[dstnyisurs]

I want my child any child of mine in the hands of ME. Sure, I'm going to screw up at some point and the kid may be running around showing off how he/she can swear in French and so on, but .... I don't know. I would never trust a robot with a child. Just a stubborn, overprotective bit of me.