TEENAGERS are to get a real taste of parenting with a "virtual baby" to give them sleepless nights.

Condom manufacturer Condomi has given the Brook Centre, Blackburn, the high-tech toy to help projects to stop teenage pregnancy.

The lifelike doll, which costs about £150, cries when it needs feeding, changing or just when it decides to be cranky.

The owner must use a key to comfort it while a tiny computer inside records how well it is handled.

Outreach workers Jessica Stam and Lyndsey Cunliffe will use the doll with teenagers at the Nacro Time Out project, Richmond Terrace, Blackburn, when discussing the dangers of unprotected sex.

Brook manager Ann Crichton said: "We will leave the baby programmed to be a bit more awkward during teenage motherhood sessions so they get an idea of how babies interrupt life.

"Some young people think it would be nice to have a baby and don't realise what a bind it is."

Blackburn has a higher than average rate of teenage motherhood, at about 55 per 1,000 under 18s.