Binks Is Here

Commentary on the World

Kid Nation

New reality TV show… The biggest hype-inducing feature of this one is that it’s got kids in it - aged from 8 to 15 years old.

It’s being pushed as a “grand experiment”, showing how kids can rise to the challange, and perhaps build a better tomorrow.

Or some shit like that (there’s a trailer on the site’s homepage, that seems to give the gist of how they’re selling it).

I think that’s bull - this is a show to put kids in a shitty situation, and watch ‘em squirm (just like every other reality TV show…). It starts to seem aparent that that’s what it really is about halfway through the video promo on the homepage - it opens up with, “A new breed of pioneers; small people, with big ideas”, and then they end up talking about a series of arbitrary classes, teams of some sort, and different challenges - all run by the producers.

I guess the thing that is most causing this knee-jerk reaction of mine is the draconian contract the parents signed:

The 22-page agreement leaves little room for parents to argue that they did not know what their children might encounter. As is standard in such agreements, the parents and the children agreed not to hold the producers and CBS responsible if their children died or were injured, if they received inadequate medical care, or if their housing was unsafe and caused injury.

But while such agreements might be standard for adult participants in a reality show, it also takes on a different tone when the minor and the parent are being held solely responsible for any “emotional distress, illness, sexually transmitted diseases, H.I.V. and pregnancy” that might occur if the child “chooses to enter into an intimate relationship of any nature with another participant or any other person.”

I mean, some of that will be standard CYA (Cover Your Ass) boilerplate, but still… they should’ve guaranteed safe housing and proper medical care.

There’s a good story from the New York Times (which was the source of that quote) that goes over some parts of the show. For now, there are concerns about child labour laws being broken (The kids were paid $5000 for their 40 days of work (nope, sorry, the kids were paid $5000 - they were NOT paid for their work. If they were paid for their work, they would be employees. Instead they did work… and they were paid. The two are, according to their contracts, not related). Those 40 days of work apparently included being expected to work at any time, for any length of time, in conditions that their contracts said could be unsafe.

Way to go CBS…

Also, this page of their site: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/kid_nation/bios/mallory/ makes my eyes do funny things. It’s impossible to read.

NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/arts/television/23kids.html?ex=1345521600&en;=61b3b1f90c8e6e8a&ei;=5088&partner;=rssnyt&emc;=rss

Wikipedia actually has a good summary of some of the controversy (that’s remarkably short, especially for wikipedia)