TY - GEN
T1 - Ethical and Societal Challenges Facing Social and Educational Robots - Insights from the KASPAR Experience
AU - Lakatos, Gabriella
AU - Velmurugan, Vignesh
AU - Menon, Catherine
AU - Wood, Luke
AU - Robins, Ben
AU - Amirabdollahian, Farshid
N1 - © 2026 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-95-2382-5_26
PY - 2026/1/2
Y1 - 2026/1/2
N2 - This paper provides a comprehensive examination of theethical and societal challenges associated with the deployment of socialrobots in educational and therapeutic settings using the KASPARrobot as a practical example. Key ethical concerns explored include safeguardingone’s privacy, addressing the implications of robotic autonomy,and mitigating cybersecurity risks. Societal challenges such as the potentialdehumanisation of care practices, overreliance on robots, and theirlong-term impact on users’ social needs are analysed in depth. Drawingfrom empirical insights into children’s interactions with KASPAR,a social robot designed to operate as an educational tool in the contextof autism education, this paper discusses practical mitigation strategiesimplemented in KASPAR, emphasising transparency, human oversight,and multidisciplinary collaboration. The findings highlight the need forthoughtful integration of robotics in sensitive domains to balance innovationwith ethical responsibility.
AB - This paper provides a comprehensive examination of theethical and societal challenges associated with the deployment of socialrobots in educational and therapeutic settings using the KASPARrobot as a practical example. Key ethical concerns explored include safeguardingone’s privacy, addressing the implications of robotic autonomy,and mitigating cybersecurity risks. Societal challenges such as the potentialdehumanisation of care practices, overreliance on robots, and theirlong-term impact on users’ social needs are analysed in depth. Drawingfrom empirical insights into children’s interactions with KASPAR,a social robot designed to operate as an educational tool in the contextof autism education, this paper discusses practical mitigation strategiesimplemented in KASPAR, emphasising transparency, human oversight,and multidisciplinary collaboration. The findings highlight the need forthoughtful integration of robotics in sensitive domains to balance innovationwith ethical responsibility.
U2 - 10.1007/978-981-95-2382-5_26
DO - 10.1007/978-981-95-2382-5_26
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 978-981-95-2381-8
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science
SP - 375
EP - 386
BT - Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Social Robotics + AI (ICSR+AI 2025)
ER -