New-Age Sex Ed: Teens Borrow Real Kids

Sept. 6, 2007 — -- A new NBC reality show "The Baby Borrowers," which gives young couples the opportunity to experience parenthood firsthand by supplying them with real babies, is raising questions about whether reality television has gone too far.

The show, a spin-off of a similar program that aired in the United Kingdom earlier this year, will film five young couples, all 18 years or older, in real homes with real children, in hopes of giving them a better idea of what parenting is like.

And, in order to simulate the different challenges of parenthood, the children "borrowed" by the young couples will be swapped out every few days with older kids, according to the show's Web site. By the end of the season, each couple will have cared for an infant, a toddler, a preteen, a teenager and even an elderly person.

With news about "Borrowers" emerging on the coattails of the controversy surrounding CBS' "Kid Nation," a reality show that documents 40 unsupervised kids in New Mexico as they try to form a functioning society, child-rearing professionals told ABC News they are wary of parents who might volunteer their children for this type of program. The program could cause emotional damage to the children who appear on the show, they said.

"It's pretty scary. Who are the parents who are going to give up their kids?" said Geoffry White, a licensed psychologist. "There better be very careful screening and profiling of the parents and kids so these infants and children don't get traumatized. Serious emotional damage can happen very quickly."

NBC and the executive producer of the show, Richard McKerrow, declined to comment directly to ABCNEWS.com.

But in a recent interview with TV Week, McKerrow said that none of the participants were paid for their roles on the program and that the set was "an extremely safe environment" and "safer than [day care]."

In addition to the film crews that follow the couples around the clock, a nanny also monitors the couples in case anything goes wrong, according to TV Week.

But psychologists remain cautious about the long-term effects on children who are placed in the care of strangers, especially those looking to make a name for themselves in the reality TV market.