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Broadcasters should be banned from using children under the age of 5 in reality television programmes, leading children’s charities said yesterday.

The call, led by the NSPCC, comes after a number of scandals involving programmes featuring children and babies. Channel 4 is investigating Claire Verity, a nanny who appears in its series Bringing Up Baby, after The Times disclosed nearly three weeks ago that she did not hold the qualifications that the channel claimed.

Eileen Hayes, the NSPCC’s parenting adviser, said that Bringing Up Baby, in which Ms Verity advocates methods popularised 100 years ago by Sir Frederic Truby King, which include leaving infants to cry and limiting cuddling time to ten minutes a day, had proved that current regulations were “clearly not working”.

Speaking at a debate hosted by the Royal Television Society, Mrs Hayes said that Bringing Up Baby presented childcare professionals with the “nightmare scenario of young, vulnerable new parents adopting these old-fash-ioned, completely discredited theories in the belief that they must be approved because they have seen them on television”.

She added: “Regrettably, it would have to be my conclusion that, until there is the reassurance that broadcasters take these issues of safeguarding the welfare of babies and children more seriously, and are consulting a wider range of professionals and experts, not simply relying on ‘clinical judgment’ from whichever ‘psychologist’ will agree to it, we should call a halt to any more programmes involving at least the under-3s and probably under-5s.”

The Family and Parenting Institute also backed the call for stricter regulation. Speaking at the same event, Mary MacLeod, the organisation’s chief executive, said: “The producers of so-called reality television seem to be living in a parallel universe, where the exploitation of newborn babies and their parents is an acceptable form of public entertainment, so long as it is dressed up as educational.

“Bringing Up Baby did get made, even though credible, serious organisations urged against it. Three-week-old babies were experimented on by parenting gurus, some of whom were peddling dangerous, outdated advice. In programmes like I Smack and I’m Proud, Supernanny and the Baby Borrowers, we see babies and children in acute distress, ignored or manhandled. If this masquerades as public service broadcasting, it is time to call a halt.”

Ofcom has received 743 complaints about Bringing Up Baby.The watchdog is producing new guidance for programme-makers on dealing with children, to be published next month.

Silver River Productions, the maker of Bringing Up Baby,had refused to answer inquiries from The Times about Ms Verity’s qualifications. Speaking at the RTS event, Tanya Shaw, the firm’s joint head of features and factual programmes, said: “All we ever said is that she was an experienced maternity nurse. The fact is that you don’t need any qualifications to act as a maternity nurse in this country.”

In an interview with The Times last month Ms Verity claimed to hold various diplomas in childcare. “It’s just a course you pay for and you just get a certificate,” she said. “I could teach these courses. I could go in there and I know more than the teachers do. Sometimes it’s crazy. When I start asking questions they can’t answer, then I know it’s just, what’s the point?”

None of the bodies from which Ms Verity claimed to hold awards could find any record of her. Her agents refused yesterday to stand by a list of qualifications that they issued earlier to The Times. Channel 4 said it was still investigating.

A spokesman for Ofcom said the watchdog was not considering a ban on under5s appearing on television. He said: “Such a move would be disproportionate and would go too far in infringing the rights of children, parents, writers and broadcasters.

“Many child interest groups have also spoken of the positive value of parenting programmes.”

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