Robotic Tortoise Helps Kids to Learn That Robot Abuse Is a Bad Thing

Kids like to touch things. Kids like to whack things. This is usually fine when the thing is a toy, but it can be a problem when the thing is a robot. We've written about children beating robots up before, and it seems like it's an inevitability when kids (or even some adults) meet a robot for the first time: They want to see what it can do and how it reacts to things, and that can result in some behaviors and interactions that would be pretty upsetting if they were targeted at something alive. That is to say, sometimes kids are abusive towards robots, especially when there aren't any consequences to the things that they do.