Robot Babies Teach Teens Why Real Babies Are No Fun
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Sunday, 3 of May , 2009 at 11:12 pm
As part of health and sexuality education, 13-15 year old students are being given robot babies to help illustrate why they might want to wait just a little bit longer before having kids of their own. The animatronic babies require constant attention including feeding, burping, rocking, and diaper changes, and just like a real baby, the robot babies will cry incessantly until you figure out the correct action key (there are keys for food, changing diapers, etc.) to insert into a slot in their back.
The babies help to teach cooperative parenting skills:
“[People on the street] look at you like you’re an easy prostitute,” said classmate Sarah. “One guy said, ‘Can I be your baby daddy?’”
As well as fostering family development:
It was hard on other family members, too, one student said. “I had to have two babies. My dad ripped the battery pack out of the first one.”
Software inside the babies monitor how well their parents are doing. Teachers are able to set the difficulty level of the babies, from easy to medium to hard to crack baby:
The “crack baby” shows the devastating effects of substance use by a pregnant woman. It bears a painful facial expression and cries frequently and heartbreakingly. “I had the crack baby,” said one student. “It was crying and screaming. Its head did a 360.”
At this particular school in Brooklyn, girls are required to take care of their robot babies for three days and two nights, while boys can either take a baby for 24 hours or write a paper. Educators are trying to stress that “it’s important that women take control of their sexual and reproductive health. If a young woman gives birth, most of the time she will be the person responsible for the child.” It seems to be quite effective for boys as well, however:
“Babies cost a lot of money,” said Kevin, who started out thinking he would have a child at 18 but gradually upped it to 40 during the interview.
Sounds like a good plan to me, Kevin.
[ Brooklyn Eagle ]
(Image from a different article)
Comments (3)
Category: Educational, Uncanny Valley
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Comment by Chelsey
Made Thursday, 28 of May , 2009 at 2:09 pm
How do you get one of these baby things?
Comment by Sarah
Made Saturday, 6 of June , 2009 at 1:35 pm
Interesting…it’s cool that they can be monitored on how good they’re doing with “changing diapers” and “feeding”, but a real baby would flop off that table so fast.
Comment by nikki
Made Saturday, 25 of July , 2009 at 10:46 pm
where can you buy one of these? my daughter is immature and i think should have one for a while. once there turned on how long do they stay on? thanks
Comment by Jaimi
Made Friday, 18 of September , 2009 at 2:23 pm
My school district has been doing this for a long time and the teacher can find out if you’ve abused it, neglected it, stuff like that, I never ended up taking the course though.
Comment by rebecca
Made Sunday, 20 of September , 2009 at 10:12 am
where can i buy one of this babies at
Comment by yali
Made Wednesday, 28 of October , 2009 at 11:28 am
WHere can i buy one????????????
Comment by rachael
Made Sunday, 6 of December , 2009 at 5:56 pm
where can you get one????? and what are they called???
can you get them in New Zealand????????
i want one. i think it would be interesting to have a robot baby just to see whats its really like to have a child so that i have an idea of what to expect when i actually start thinking about having kids.
Comment by amy palacios
Made Thursday, 17 of December , 2009 at 8:21 pm
I would like to know where i can buy one and how much they are i would like to purchase one