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But producers of the erotic dolls have slammed the proposals as "ridiculous".

Ultra-realistic sex robots made by cyborg companies such as Realbotix, True Companion and Synthea Amatus have started to flood the market this year.

Many men are ditching real life women to have sex, and even relationships, with human-like erotic cyborgs built to spice up the bedroom.

These female androids have voluptuous, porn star-style silicone bodies and robotic heads programmed to have multiple personalities, speak and see with “human vision”.

One sex robot named Samantha, developed by scientist Dr Sergi Santos, “likes to be touched” and can be purchased for as little as £2,500 online.

But there has been a backlash against what Dr Santos claims is a burgeoning sex robot “revolution” sweeping the globe.

(Image: GETTY/SERGI SANTOS)

A groundbreaking report from the UK-based Foundation for Responsible Robots has called on the government to ban the sale and import of sick child sex dolls.

The report, written by professor Noel Sharkey, said that guilt free sex with a submissive robot could encourage objectification, abuse, rape and paedophilia.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Online, Nigel Cameron, president of the influential Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies think tank, has gone one step further.

(Image: SERGI SANTOS)

In the same way that tobacco and alcohol sales are taxed, Mr Cameron has called on governments to introduce an eye-watering levy on sex robots.

The strategist and writer for the Washington DC-based think tank believes a tobacco and alcohol-style tax is a useful mechanism to discourage “abusive conduct”.

As it stands cigarettes in the UK are subject to a tax rate equivalent to 16.5% of the retail price, plus £4.16 on a packet of 20.

In the US, cigarettes tax rates are set on a state-by-state basis, with Connecticut charging 3.9%, New York 4.4% and Texas 1.41% of the retail price.

(Image: SERGI SANTOS)

In the case of cigarettes, there is evidence to suggest that hike taxes have deterred consumers from smoking, with the rate falling from 16.9% in 2015 to 15.8% in 2016 in Britain.

Tax hikes introduced by governments are usually introduced gradually so as not to penalise consumers and cause industries to collapse overnight.

But for sex robots, Mr Cameron has urged governments to immediately tax sales at an introductory rate of 10,000% – but stopped short of an outright ban.

He said: “There's a serious chance that sex robots will lead to increasingly abusive conduct.

“People often decide to ban things they don't approve of, and it rarely works.

“But governments have many ways of discouraging behaviour that is deemed unhelpful, including – a useful comparison is tobacco – through taxation.

“What about a 10,000% tax on sex robots for a start?”

(Image: SERGI SANTOS)

Mr Cameron said that sex robots are presenting a genuine alternative to porn, which has sparked debates about the impact on users’ sexuality.

Advocates of erotic cyborgs, such as Matt McMullen, CEO of Realbotix, claim androids provide socially awkward people with an outlet to express their sexual and emotional desires.

But Mr Cameron is not convinced of their merits and foresees “horrendous implications” for society if regulation isn’t introduced.

He said: “An illusion of liberal modernity is that sex is a pastime, like golf, external to us and of only as much importance as we give it.

“I'm not convinced, and outsourcing our most powerful emotions to machines suggests the ultimate de-humanization

“If they become mainstream – likely as prices fall – it's hard not to see women and children as big losers.

“The notion that – mainly male – users will take out their fantasies and so on with the machines and not wish to perpetrate them on people is just an optimistic guess.

“Since in Japan there are already reports of child sex robots there could be horrendous implications for deviant behaviour.”

(Image: SERGI SANTOS)

Speaking with Daily Star Online, Dr Santos, whose sex robots are on display in London’s Covent Garden, has lashed out at calls to introduce a sex robot sales tax.

In a blistering attack on the tax, he branded it “ridiculous”, “pointless” and “moronic”.

He said: “Presumably these guys wants to abuse people by charging them a lot.

“For example my uncle, he lives on his own, he doesn’t have a woman. I gave him one of my sex robots.

“But imagine if he has to buy it, this guy doesn’t have a lot of money, so what does he have to do, pay a 10,000% tax to the government?

“So what happens with my uncle if he can’t afford it? He’s lonely, and that’s a sad thought.

“The tax being suggested is ridiculous."

But Dr Santos believes sex robots will be accepted in society only after there has been a “revolution”.

He argues that “absolute statements” about the dangers of sex robots cannot be made until after the “revolution is gone”.

He added: “What I’m doing is good for some people and bad for others, but in general I don’t understand why it’s bad for society overall.

“Why don’t they slap a 10,000% tax on dildos and vibrators for women."