AFTERSCHOOL SHOWS--Adolescence can be tough, a fact...

AFTERSCHOOL SHOWS--Adolescence can be tough, a fact that all three networks are acknowledging this week in afternoon specials for young people.

Unfortunately, two of the shows--CBS’ “Babies Having Babies” and NBC’s “Main Street”--are being broadcast opposite one another Tuesday. And wouldn’t you know it? Both deal with a similar subject: teen-age sex. More specifically, they deal with the potentially life-altering consequences of teen-age sex: pregnancy.

“Babies Having Babies” (3 p.m., Channel 2; 3:30 p.m., Channel 8) is an hourlong drama for the “CBS Schoolbreak Special.” Originally scheduled for telecast Jan. 28 but preempted by network coverage of the space shuttle disaster, it’s about five girls who show up at a counseling session for pregnant teens and wind up spending the afternoon talking about boys, babies, sex, birth control and a host of other related topics.

“Main Street” (3 p.m., Channel 4; 4 p.m., Channel 36), an NBC News magazine show for young people, looks at the same topic but from a reportorial standpoint, interviewing two single teen-age mothers about their lives. In addition, sex therapist Ruth Westheimer will appear to discuss the sexual problems of young people.

The plight of the homeless is the subject of “Are You My Mother?” an “Afterschool Special” airing on ABC Wednesday (3 p.m., Channels 7 and 10; 4 p.m., Channels 3 and 42). Michael York, Sheree North, Marian Mercer, Belinda Balaski and Beth Miller are featured in the story of a teen-age girl who discovers that her mother, whom she has been told is dead, actually is alive and living on the streets.

Teen-age dilemmas spill over into prime time in ABC’s TV movie “The Children of Times Square” (Monday at 9 p.m., Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42), about a 14-year-old boy who runs away from home and falls in with a youthful gang of drug pushers in New York City. Brandon Douglas plays the boy, Joanna Cassidy is the mother who tries to find him and Howard E. Rollins Jr. plays the leader of the drug pack.