The other day I saw a claim that by 2050, realistic robots for sexual purposes will exist. Now, whether or not you agree on the when, I think that it is safe to say it will be a when and not an if. When that happens we will have many legal questions to ask. The first two that come to mind:

1) How will we deal with the apparent 'age' of bots. Obviously the actual age doesn't matter, just like the age of any other sex toy doesn't matter. The apparent age certainly could. First, from the standpoint of sex (technically masturbation), is this something that could lead someone down the path to abusing children or could it make children safer by offering potential abusers an outlet? Second, one must also consider that such a bot could also be used for pornography. If it is determined that 'underage' bots be banned, how can we define what makes a bot legal? There is no magical physical change that occurs when we turn eighteen.

2) How do we deal with bots created to look like a specific person? Obviously there are plenty of ways this could be misused. Have a little cash and a nasty breakup? How long before someone makes a bot that looks like an ex and floods the web with explicit videos of it? What about celebrities? There has to be a lot of money to be made in the celebrity twin sexbot market. Then there are election years.....think of all the attempts you see to discredit Obama and Romney: does anyone really think that fake sex tapes will not be released?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. What do you think?