Parenting Journal · Volume 3 · Issue 1 · Licensed source edition
Social robotics for children: an investigation of manufacturers’ claims
Originally published 2023-12-19 · Frontiers in Robotics and AI
Frontiers Media SA · DOI 10.3389/frobt.2023.1080157 ↗
AI / system type
Social robots / manufacturer-claims evidence audit
Family implicationsDesign, ethics, stakeholder or technical evidence with child/family implications; household benefits are not assumed.
The AI connection
Analyzes commercial children’s social-robot claims, including adaptivity and emotionally humanlike descriptions; it does not validate a particular AI implementation.
Why this reading matters
Offers a concrete way to scrutinize parent-facing promises and anthropomorphic language before confusing them with scientific evidence.
Editorial reading guide · Trust
What evidence supports the promises made about a child’s social robot?
The audit connects Trust with the evidence behind child-focused AI marketing. It asks whether claims about education, emotions and adaptivity are substantiated.
Study context
Twenty-one robot websites and 653 manufacturer statements
Age / stage: Commercial robots marketed for children; no child participants
Read with three questions
- Which kinds of functionality and outcome claims were common?
- How was supporting evidence evaluated?
- What is the difference between a marketing claim and measured benefit for children?
Keep the limits in view
The audit examined websites collected in 2021, not current products or real child outcomes. Search coverage and interpretation of claims limit completeness, and heterogeneous products should not be treated as one capability.
The text below is the original article’s licensed repository edition. Its wording is not rewritten. Use the Paper Agent beside the text to locate evidence; open the source for figures, tables and complete context.
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Follow the original.
Original authorship, publication date, journal and DOI are preserved. This issue’s TRICK placement and reading questions are editorial additions, not claims made by the original authors.
Jill A. Dosso; Anna Riminchan; Julie M. Robillard (2023). Social robotics for children: an investigation of manufacturers’ claims Frontiers in Robotics and AI. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2023.1080157
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-04. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.