Sex with Robots: How should the Law respond?

While sex dolls have been available since at least the first half of the twentieth century, technology now enables hyper-realistic, internet-connected, individually programmable, sex robots. They can blink, smile and moan. They’re anatomically correct with an almost entirely customisable range of facial and bodily features, and bodies with a human-like temperature. Marketed as a sex aid, a sex substitute and in some instances, a companion, demand for female sex robots far outweighs that for male versions, with male customers significantly outnumbering female customers.
These technological developments, coupled with increasing demand and public concern, suggest Australian policymakers are likely to be confronted with calls for the regulation of sex robots in the future. Balancing competing and complex individual and public interests pose new ethical, regulatory and legal challenges for consideration.