"Baby Gaga" Video Appropriate?

Lady Gaga is known the world over -- but do you know "Baby Gaga"?

A toddler is burning up the Internet with a video that has exploded in popularity and controversy.

In less than five days, Baby Gaga has gone viral on YouTube with roughly one million hits.

The video, featuring 3-year-old Keira Ladrow, is a spoof on the video "Telephone" by Lady Gaga. The video shows the toddler in heavy makeup, dancing, while wearing handcuffs. Later, she's surrounded by a group of adult female dancers. The video ends with her in a dress on top of a bar.

Photos: Lady Gaga's Eye-Catching Style
Watch the full "Baby Gaga" video
Little Ladies, Big Controversy

CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller points out the video is part of a growing trend of racy videos. In another well-known YouTube video, a group of scantily-clad 7-year olds can be seen participating in a dance competition, imitating Beyonce to the song "Single Ladies."

Miller showed several parents the "Baby Gaga" video and asked for their response to its content.

One man said, "It's sick, with the makeup and everything."

A woman called the video "sick" and "disturbing."

However, others found it harmless.

"I think it's playful," one woman said.

Close to 5,000 YouTube subscribers also weighed in. One called the video "the cutest thing ever." Another wrote, "So what? She's in handcuffs, (it) makes it more theatrical." But many sounded off, one saying, "There are no excuses for using a child this young for a parody."

Another woman told Miller, "It's exploitation, you're exploiting a child, I don't know what for."

But on "The Early Show" Tuesday, Keira's mother, Heidi Ladrow, and Jake Wilson, the producer/director of the video, defended it.

Heidi said she made the video because it suited her daughter's personality.

"She's three. She is very energetic, she's very playful, and she's outgoing," Heidi said. "And Jake, the director here, he has known her since she was 6 months old, so she was very comfortable with him. And being in the industry, he decided let's do a video, a spoof of Lady Gaga. So it was perfect because she's so animated. And she's a good little dancer, so it just seemed like a good fit."

"Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez observed it didn't look like Kiera was having a good time making the video. But how was she on the set?

Wilson said, "Keira since she's been young, she's always loved to play dress ups like I did when I was a little kid. That's the joy of being a kid. So she had a great time. And a lot of the things in the video where she seems mad or something, that was us telling her to be mad because that's one of her faces that she likes making and that's just the joke on the video."

Rodriguez said, "She's a little girl. She's wearing makeup, she's wearing handcuffs. She has scantily clad women dancing behind her. Did any part of you wonder what is my little girl going to take from this experience?"

Heidi responded, "There was not one moment during the footage that she was uncomfortable with this. She never started to feel threatened or scared or said, Mommy -- a 3-year-old, there's one thing about a 3-year-old, you can't make them do anything. So if there was any sign of that during this whole video footage, I would have not let it go on."

As for the scantily-clad women in bikini tops dancing behind her daughter, Heidi said she didn't have a problem with it because it was a spoof of Lady Gaga.

"It has to be a little outrageous because Lady Gaga's videos are outrageous. So basically it was just mocking that whole process. She loved every minute of it. She doesn't talk about it anymore. It's not something that's damaging to her or anything. She had fun dressing up, being herself. The whole video took about three hours to make. There were no long rehearsals."

However, psychotherapist Heidi Banks, a Huffington Post contributor, said the video could be potentially damaging to Keira later.

"I think we have as to look at the Britney Spears of the world," she said. Banks told Heidi Ladrow, "I know you are a loving parent. I've spent a few minutes with both of you, and you work with children all the time. There's no question about your love for your daughter. But we don't always know the effects later on. When she sees this when she's 15 or 16 or 17. Because children do do things to please their parents."

She continued, "They may look like they're have fun, but there's a point where other parents can do this, and there will be copy cats. Look what happened around Britney Spears, which is where I started this discussion. When Britney went out there and did what they did like 'Oops, I Did It Again,' there were imitators all other than the world, little girls doing that. And now these little girls are older and they're looking back going, 'Oops, it's on video. It's been taped.'"

Rodriguez added, "That one thing that concerns me. It' s all over the place. Who knows who is looking at this. The thought of a sicko or a pedophile looking at your little girl. Doesn't that disturb you?"

Heidi Ladrow replied, "This went gangbusters quite quickly. It was a little project that we put together as spoof, as fun, something for our friends and family. We had no idea. I had no intentions. I had no idea this would get as large as it was. And I'm fine with it because I know how it was made. She was comfortable with Jake the whole time. And I was there. The reason why she might have looked a little -- she just woke up from a two hour nap. We wanted her -- she's animated. We wanted her to look kind of upset in certain points. But I think that she's a very well-adjusted child, and at 3, she's very self-actualized. I don't think she's going to look back and say -- I'm not trying to put her out there to be the next childhood star."

So would Keira's mom try to withdraw the video?

"It's too late," Heidi said. "It's on all kinds of videos. It's beyond YouTube."

Heidi says she doesn't have regrets about the video.

"It was for fun," she said. "It was a spoof and we had fun."

But Banks wanted to issue a caution to other parents about these kinds of videos.

"There's a lot of parents out there that want this attention, that want fame for their child, and they're not coming the most authentic place. They're looking for that living their life out in reality television. So the caution is err on the side of conservative."