Abstract: This paper explores the changes in parent-child relationships brought about by robots’ involvement in the family by examining parental robots, child robots, and nanny robots in science fiction, film, and television. This new change challenges traditional parent-child ethical relationships, such as the principles of autonomy, respect, care, and responsibility. The impact of robots on parent-child relationships reminds us of: 1. the shift from focusing on micro-ethics between individual family members to macro-ethics between humans and robots; 2. the shift from parent-child relationships dominated by emotional ethics to those dominated by the principle of rational consensus; and 3. the need to consider whether robots have independent personality and human rights as the key to resolving new ethical relationships. Finally, this paper also argues that the new ethical rules are not a negation of the traditional ethical principles between parents and children, but a supplement to them.

Key Words: Robotics; Autonomy; Respect; Care; Responsibility; Human rights