This is the same fake baby Danny on the show, Studio 60, got to care for this week. His ended up getting its head chopped off in a guillotine and his girlfriend was pregnant by another man, so the results were a tad different. Anyway, here’s an article about these dolls and here’s another about a teen pregnancy prevention program using them. This site is selling them and accessories.
Robot babies to reduce teen pregnancy
HIGH school students in the Mexican state of Chihuahua are being made to care for screaming, hiccuping baby dolls to try to bring down the state’s soaring teenage pregnancy rate.
Pairs of teenage boys and girls aged 13 to 17 have to spend two or three days tending to the computerised babies, programmed to cry for food, burp and wake up screaming at night until they are rocked back to sleep.
“You have to change their diapers, feed them and slap them on the back so they burp. They laugh, they get colic. They simulate the behaviour of a real baby,” said state education official Pilar Huidobro, who is in charge of the program.
Students in Chihuahua are mostly horrified at the amount of work involved in looking after a baby, which they take home at night, Mr Huidobro said.
“There’s been a good response,” she said.
Drug affected version
Hmm. I suspect the cylons will find earth by the end of this season and season four will detail the successful GOP nomination and campaign of Caprica Six and Brother Cavil (social conservatives will overlook her appearance in Playboy in favor of her foreign policy positions).
The “drug affected version” caption was the funniest thing I’ve read in some time. Makes sense, though — if it’s gonna be a time sink anyway, may as well at least provide the hook up.
You guys above need less caffiene in the mornings.
A teacher I worked with last year says these dolls do an amazing job of waking up both boys and girls to the reality of babies. She used an older version that wasn’t quite as sophisticated, but the end result is the same. Unfortunately, the dolls are expensive.
Maybe Bill Gates can buy one of the manufacturers and donate a dozen dolls to every school on the US.
I bet these do work a little, but the problem would be to get the kids serious about the project. A bigger problem… Sex feels good. An even bigger problem. Kids aren’t too good at decision making.
According to the site that sells them, you can get a discount if you buy a lot.
What does a plastic baby do that a Chicken egg doesn’t? I think we all had the “take care of the Chicken egg for a week” lesson on middle school (junior high for those older folks around here).
You remember Furbees?
These things act like real babies. They wake up in the middle of the night and take an hour to go back to sleep. They cry all night if you toss it out in the yard. You must hold them, properly, almost constantly each day. The teacher can download the data it collects regarding its care. It has accelerometers to tell if it’s been dropped. And on, and on.
They don’t prevent sex directly, but they superbly drive home the point that safe and protected sex is extremely important, if you must indulge.
#3,
I’m sure Bill Gates will do that, but only if you forward this message to everyone in your address book to test his new email tracking software.
#7 – Do I get $1000 and a free trip to Disneyland?
5. “What does a plastic baby do that a Chicken egg doesn’t?”
From the article:
they also cry when you break them open into a frying pan.
Ah – the egg project in Senior year. I was a Senior in 1991 and was given an egg, called it Roberta. My Mom had crocheted a small little bed for it.
Up to this day I still have this very egg. She will be 16 this year but hasn’t aged one day
10. “they also cry when you break them open into a frying pan.”
You’ve watched too much Mork and Mindy!
my highschool had these (nw montana) – they were pretty damn annoying
13. Imagine what a real baby is like.
13, welcome to parenthood. Oh, and it ain’t over after a weekend, let me tell ya.