Child sex-abuse dolls and robots: fighting paedophilia
February 11 2021
09:00-10:30 GMT [online]
Child sex-abuse dolls are lifelike dolls of children to carry out paedophilic fantasies. Advocates of the dolls believe they could help to reduce child sexual exploitation and point to the lack of a ‘moral agent’ in the doll that is unharmed by paedophilic behaviour. Against this backdrop is a growing attempt to redefine paedophilia as a sexual orientation ‘pedosexual’ and moves to see it as an unfortunate but normal sexual orientation. We critically reject the arguments for child-sex abuse dolls and highlight the attack on children’s dignity and rights.
Bio: Kathleen Richardson is Professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI at De Montfort University. She has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and masters degrees in Law (DMU), Social Anthropology (Cambridge) and Development, Administration and Planning (UCL). Kathleen am founder of the Campaign Against Sex Robots and a founding member of The Fates (The Feminist Academy of Technology and Ethics). She also is Director of WERAID (Women, Ethics, Robots, AI and Data) a research group. Her work has been featured in national and interntional press.
Bio: Caitlin is an activist, writer and PhD candidate at RMIT university in Melbourne, Australia where she is researching female-bodied sex dolls and robots. Caitlin is campaigns manager at Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation, a grassroots campaigning movement challenging the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls in media, advertising and popular culture. Caitlin is a founding member and chair of Adopt Nordic Western Australia to fight sex trafficking and a Huffington Post blogger. Her work has also been featured in The Guardian, ABC and Sydney Morning Herald, and she has been interviewed by a number of Australian radio and TV programs including The Project and Lateline.
