A new BBC reality show will give teenagers the chance to try their hand at being parents by borrowing someone else's baby. If there was ever a TV show guaranteed to have the Daily Mail foaming at the mouth with fury, then this is it.
The BBC3 series, called Baby Borrowers, (every night from Monday, 8 January, 10.30pm) will feature five couples aged between 16 and 19. They will start off attempting to look after a baby for three days, before moving onto a toddler, a child under 10 and finally a teenager.
"Five brave parents hand over their babies for the teens to look after, as the unique social experiment in which five teenage couples discover exactly what it's like to be a parent continues," explains the BBC.
"Tonight, cameras follow the teenagers over the first, demanding 24 hours of looking after other people's babies and capture their attempts to cope with the constant round of crying, nappy-changing and feeding."
Sounds fascinating, but presumably the babies haven't given their consent. The parents have, though, which meant the local county council - Norfolk - was unable to intervene.
"We were so worried about it that we asked the BBC to cancel the series, but they refused," said council spokesman Mark Langlands.
The BBC said there was nothing to worry about - professional nannies were on standby throughout the making of the programme - and officials from the Teens and Toddlers charity acted as consultants.
But Teens and Toddlers director Peter Hein told the Daily Mail it had not taken part. "We didn't get enough details. We declined to be involved further."
The Mail points out that the production company responsible, Love Productions, "has previously produced a Channel 4 programme called Gay Muslims", although it doesn't say why this is relevant. How very Daily Mail.
Irresponsible exploitation or unique social experiment? Public service programming at its best or stunt TV designed to create a few headlines for BBC3, which is in danger of becoming the Torchwood channel.
Perhaps we should wait until the babies are 18 and the BBC can ask for their retrospective consent. Bet they say no. But perhaps we shouldn't blame the BBC, we should blame the parents. Or is that a bit Daily Mail?
