[Academic Paper] Let's Make Robot's “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.

Lay summary (by Claude 3 Sonnet): Researchers worked with children to understand their thoughts and priorities about having social robots in their daily lives at home and school. They held workshops to teach kids about their rights when interacting with artificial intelligence like robots, including fairness, inclusion for all, and privacy. The children discussed their concerns that some robots might not be accessible to everyone and designed ideas for more inclusive robots with customized personalities. They were also careful about what personal information they would share with robots and other companies. The study showed children can provide valuable input into how social robots should be designed while respecting kids’ rights and priorities around fairness, accessibility, privacy, and other important issues.