The Jeremy Kyle Show was given a battering in the Commons as a Bristol MP branded it a "modern day freak show".

Labour's Kerry McCarthy introduced a parliamentary Bill to toughen the rules to protect children whose parents go on reality television or chat shows, particularly when they include DNA tests.

She told MPs the most vulnerable families usually ended up on the programmes laying bare their secrets to millions of viewers.

"The shows which concern me most are the daytime talk shows, of which The Jeremy Kyle Show, described by a judge in a recent criminal court case as "human bear-baiting" is the most notorious example," she told the Commons.

"They serve up damaged people and dysfunctional relationships for entertainment – it's the modern day equivalent of the freak show."

Recent episodes of The Jeremy Kyle Show include one titled If I Can't Have Children, How Can It Be My Baby? and another called Brother, I'll Prove I'm the Father of Your Ex-Girlfriend's Baby.

Ms McCarthy said ITV, which broadcasts the programme, told her they adhered to "strict guidelines" and carried out DNA tests only when it was essential to the story.

But she told MPs this was "slightly disingenuous, seeing as the storyline is usually "who is the father of the child?"".

"You might say that what a baby doesn't know won't hurt them. But the chances that baby will grow up and find out one day exactly what happened on that television programme, I would say, are fairly high," she said.

"People in their neighbourhoods won't forget about it, their future schoolmates will find out about it.

"They risk humiliation, bullying, feeling rejected, feeling hurt.

"And to be honest, even if they don't find out, I can't help feeling there is just something plain wrong about it."

Ms McCarthy was introducing her Children (Protection of Privacy) Bill, which had an unopposed first reading but stands no chance of becoming law because of a lack of Parliamentary time.

"All I am asking is that the broadcasters should start showing more responsibility and that the relentless tide which is taking us towards ever more brutal, more humiliating, more degrading TV programmes should be halted – at the very least where children are concerned," the Bristol East MP said.