Enlarge / A virtual baby identical to those used in the study (credit: Australian Science Media Centre)
Babies can be a drag. Their utter helplessness and disappointing lack of communication skills often leaves new parents sleep-deprived and playing frantic guessing games amid ear-piercing cries (mostly from the baby). Such exhausting pains of parenthood should be enough to deter any unprepared teen from getting frisky too early—or so the makers of an infant simulator called “Baby Think It Over” seemed to think. But those makers may have their own reconsidering to do.
The life-like dolls are needy and a bit creepy to boot, but completely lousy at deterring teens from getting pregnant, according to the first randomized, controlled trial on the popular sex education tool. In fact, the study, involving more than 2,800 Australian girls between the ages of 13 and 15, actually hinted that the dolls may increase the risk of teen pregnancy.
Of the 1,267 teens that had to care for, burp, change, and feed the robot babies over a weekend, 17 percent (or 210 girls) had at least one pregnancy by the age of 20. That’s a slight jump from pregnancy rate of the 1,567 girls in the control group, who received a standard school curriculum on sex education and parenting. Their pregnancy rate was just 11 percent (or 168 girls).
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Source: Ars Technica – Needy robot babies are annoying and creepy, but ineffective birth control