Sex Robot Brothels Proliferating, Because They Are Legal; Sexbots Often Cheaper and More Popular Than Human Female Prostitutes

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 18, 2019) – There are already more than a dozen brothels in major cities where men can engage in their sex fantasies – including activities so extreme that human prostitutes refuse to participate – with increasingly lifelike sex robots (often called “sexbots”), and the number is likely to grow, even in the U.S., because laws in most places prohibiting prostitution and sex-related services apply only to human sex workers, not robots.

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This raises issues about whether society is willing to permit such establishments to operate, especially without any restrictions or regulations, even if the brothels are willing to provide sexbots to under-age customers, to advertise and promote their services openly, provide sexbots which look and act like young children, and/or allow the female sexbots to be programmed to fulfill a customer's rape fantasies by pretending to be raped, suggests public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

Banzhaf, who is also an engineer with an interest in robotics, has written and lectured widely on issues raised by increasingly complex and realistic sex robots now using artificial intelligence.

His agitation on these issues may have been a factor in pressuring the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill to ban sexbots which appear to be children, including even young toddlers.

The bill is called the CREEPER Act (Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophiliac Robots).

The legality of sex robot brothels

To demonstrate that the concern is real, an adult male was recently found not guilty of importing a 3-foot-tall child sex doll.

Meanwhile, in the UK, which has in effect a ban like the CREEPER Act, authorities seized 128 child sex dolls during a recent year, and 85 percent of the men who imported them were found to also be in possession of child pornography.

Sex robot brothels are already operating in the following major cities, including: Vienna, Austria, Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, Aarhus, Denmark, Helsinki, Finland, Paris, France, Dortmund, Germany, Turin, Italy, Nagoya, Japan, Moscow, Russia, Barcelona, Spain, and Lucerne, Switzerland.

Many more cyber brothels are planned, according to developers, because many men prefer robots over human sex partners in other brothels where both are available; the sexbots cost far less so more customers (including young ones) can be lured in with a lower price; and especially because most jurisdictions in the U.S. and around the world do not have any laws regulating establishments which offer sexual services by robots instead of by humans.

Laws prohibiting - or in some situations strictly regulating - prostitution, or the provision of sexual services such as full-body massages, have traditionally been justified by the need to protect human females from exploitation and even sex trafficking, to reduce the incidence of street walking and the spread of venereal diseases, and related concerns, but these do not seem to apply when those performing the sexual service are robots rather than human beings.

Child sexbots?

But many might not only find that permitting adults to simulate sex (including rape) with child sexbots is demeaning, but that it might also offer an opportunity for those with perverted sex fantasies to test them out in a safe venue, and perhaps as a result become so drawn to the activity that they develop and then act upon an urge to practice it on real children.

Although some argue that sex robots made to look and act like children could be used therapeutically to reduce pedophilia, Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY), the sponsor of the CREEPER act disagrees.

He argues that "You don't give an alcoholic a bottle of liquor to stop their addiction, so why would you provide a pedophile with a tool that would further normalize harmful actions? Once a child sex abuser tires of practicing on a doll, it's a small step to move on to an innocent child."

He continues: "This isn't just speculation. Psychologists and researchers believe that these dolls reinforce, normalize, and encourage pedophilic behavior, potentially putting more children at risk to harm. It is absurd to argue that permitting sexual abuse against a realistic portrayal of a child somehow stops pedophiles from viewing real children as sexual outlets for their sick desires."

Problems with sex robot brothels

Some feminist organizations have also raised concerns that allowing men to "rape" female sexbots, programmed to appear so as to resist, may likewise encourage closet rapists to put their fantasies into practice, first with sexbots, but then graduating to actually raping real women.

In any event, there are also real concerns about permitting teenage boys able - for less than the cost of many concert tickets - to be introduced to sex and sexual fulfillment in this artificial manner, and to permitting the open advertising and promotion of what some may regard as a perversion; sex with robots.

Banzhaf suggests that the science behind these and other related arguments is unclear, and therefore that federal, state, and local legislators should begin addressing these issues through hearings and studies before such cyber brothels become established in their state.

Houston, Texas, recently had to react very quickly when a company called KinkySdollS tried to open a "love dolls brothel" which would provide an "adult love dolls rent-before-you-buy service."

It hurriedly adopted an ordinance which banned individuals with having sex with an "anthropomorphic device," a device which resembles as human being, "at a sexually- oriented business."

Since each sexbot cost only about $3000, such a business could have fully recovered the cost of the device after only a few weeks of operation, suggests Banzhaf, who reminds everyone that the problems will become more acute as technology - including artificial intelligence and advanced interactive programming - makes sex robots appear and act even more realistically in the future.