The build up to and the airing of one of America's newest reality TV shows, has brought with it a great deal of controversy. ‘Kid Nation’, which airs on CBS, premiered tonight, Wednesday, September 19 at 8PM ET/PT.
The show has sparked debate in numerous circles, and so I ask you, “Is the show a social experiment or just the entertainment/TV industries abusive use of children?” CBS's lead tag line for the show is, “40 Kids for 40 days with no grown-ups. Can they do it?”, however it has caused many to respond with “Should they do it?”. The shows 'stars’ are 40 Kids, ranging in age from 8 years old to 15 years old, and no adults. The object of the show is to see how these children will “build a brave new world without adults to help or hinder their efforts”.
Using children seems like a ploy to increase TV ratings in a fleeting TV market, a market which appears to now be driven by reality TV. To some it seems to be just another hopeless failure of American TV, as the days of the family sitcom appear long gone, no wonder countless parents have most of the channels on their TV's blocked.
Reality TV, though despised by many appears not only to be the way forward on western TV, but the world over. From cooking and singing competitions, to washed-up celebrities riding bulls and ballroom dancing, voyeuristic shows that follow newlywed celebs or just watching a bunch of nobody's go about their day…you name it and they’ve made a show about it. There appears to be no limit on what will appear in your living room each evening, but while it's an adults free will to make a fool of themselves or put themselves to the test, how are we ensuring the rights of a child by allowing them to appear on such a show? Should children be allowed to participate, and who is to be held responsible, the parents or the producers? If you left your 8 year old home alone for 40 days, your child would have been taken from you and you’d be facing neglect and endangerment charges. However if you do it for the sake of TV, you and your child get a minimum of $5,000. The show brings up other children's rights issues, such as child labor, as the children are expected to work to survive, and there where no guidelines for the number of hours worked, or the level of physical activities the children participated in. Some aspects of the show have some raising concerns on child labor issues, however the producers of the show have attempted to skirt around the issue, by claiming the children where all ‘actors’.
Parents where required to sign many of their children's rights away for the shows production, including giving CBS and its production team the right to make all medical treatment decisions on their child's behalf. The show, which was filmed in New Mexico, due to looser regulations and laws, and the shows producers had said the environment was that of a 'summer camp’, and not one of work. However since the show was filmed the state had tightened its regulations on the number and span of hours a child actor can work. Even though the loophole in New Mexico's state law has been closed, the state and shows producers continue to disagree if labor laws were properly followed.
What are your views, is it good TV, or abusive TV? Please share them with us, your comments are much appreciated!
