Social Robots and Children

Although children are increasingly likely to encounter social and communicative robots in their lives, scholars of children, adolescents, and the media have only recently picked up on the subject. From the perspective of research on children, adolescents, and the media, this chapter therefore first presents a rationale for studying social robots and then explicates the pertinent theoretical issues. This theoretical fundament is necessary to demonstrate the link between research on children and social robots on the one hand and research on children, adolescents, and the media on the other. Accordingly, it is outlined subsequently how scholars of children, adolescents, and the media can contribute theoretically to theory formation in research on children and social robots. The remainder of this chapter illustrates empirical research on the role of social robots in children's lives, focusing on topics that are prominently studied and relevant to scholars of children, adolescents, and the media.