Reality TV shows should be banned from using children under three, say experts

The NSPCC and the Family and Parenting Institute claim children who appear on programmes such as Supernanny, Bringing Up Baby and The Baby Borrowers could suffer long-term harm.

Both charities have taken their complaints to the TV watchdog Ofcom in a campaign to make better protection for children compulsory under the Broadcasting Code.

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Eileen Hayes, parenting adviser for the NSPCC, said: 'Until there is reassurance broadcasters take issues of safeguarding the welfare of babies and children more seriously, we should call a halt to any more programmes involving the under-threes and probably under-fives.'

In the BBC show The Baby Borrowers, five teenage couples were tasked with raising other people's children.

The show was criticised for putting babies and young children at risk.

Mary MacLeod, chief executive of the Family and Parenting Institute, a Government-funded advisory body, said: 'In programmes like these we see babies in acute distress, ignored or manhandled.

'If this masquerades as public service broadcasting it is time to call a halt and make sure neither the children nor their relationships with their parents are harmed in the short or longer term.'

She warned that children taking part may be bullied afterwards, adding: 'Tiny babies are not commodities to be shunted around.'

Miss MacLeod singled out the Channel 4 show Bringing Up Baby, which put various childcare methods to the test, for 'peddling dangerous, outdated advice' and using three-week-old babies for 'experiments' by parenting gurus often unqualified for the task.

She said babies and children on reality shows should be regulated by the same laws as child actors.

Under-age performers have to be licensed by their local authority, while those aged under five can only be under lights for half an hour at a time and work for only two hours out of five.

The warning, made at a parenting conference in London this week, was not the first time reality shows have been criticised for putting children's welfare at risk.

The film-maker Roger Graef, 71, told two months ago how producerson Supernanny were told to force children to cry.

He added: 'I have had producers come up to me and say, "I cannot do this anymore. I have been told to change the ending to conform to the script".'

But Tanya Shaw, executive producer for Bringing Up Baby, said: 'I think it is very extreme to ban children on television under the age of five. There is no evidence or information to back up the allegation of bullying.'

A BBC spokesman said the criticisms about The Baby Borrowers were 'completely unfounded'.