Or if the robots weren't anthropomorphic -- just a box with wheels.

Reminds me of this game I used to play called Creatures - a sort of life sim with monkey-like animals that you were supposed to nurture, teach, protect. There were a few people, though, who played the game by 'torturing' the 'animals', slapping them constantly, starving them, and drowning them. They had sites detailing their creatures' little misadventures.

This caused a lot of people to get up in arms, complaining about cruelty to animals and whatnot. I mean, these people were -pissed-. It was very strange to me, considering that they were a bunch of electric signals in a machine and had no personal wills. It must have been because they were cute - if they'd looked like starfish, nobody would have cared.