Computerized Babies Cry, Burp at Students
High school students in the Mexican state of Chihuahua are being made to care for screaming, hiccuping baby dolls that run on computer chips to try to bring down the state’s soaring teenage pregnancy rate.
Pairs of teen-age boys and girls aged 13 to 17 have to spend two or three days tending to the computerized babies, programed 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 behavior of a real baby,” said state education official Pilar Huidobro, who is in charge of the program.
