Defamer
With outrage over Isaiah Washington's unexpected casting in Bionic Woman fading, a new, and dare we say much more interesting, controversy is materializing at the TCAs over Kid Nation, CBS's attempt to inject some much-needed Lord of the Flies-style fun into their Fall schedule. Earlier, TV Week reported on how the producers took advantage of subsequently tightened loopholes in New Mexico's child labor laws and classified the production as a "summer camp" (summer camps, after all, are totally fun, and not at all child-exploiting places of employment) to get the show done; today, ABC News asks a psychologist to opine on how the impressionable minds of these campers might be impacted by the stresses of reality TV:
Experts, however, who have yet to see the program but are familiar with the production wonder if it is ethical to isolate children to record how they respond to the stress of taking care of themselves, dealing with one another — and competing for thousands of dollars."This sounds terrible, and I think it's unethical," Geoffrey White, a psychologist who has worked on a dozen reality shows, including ABC's "The Mole," told ABCNEWS.com. "Any psychologist working on this production would be unprofessional at best and unethical at most."
White said that when put in the high-pressure situations that have become typical of today's reality shows, even adults can experience serious emotional stress."These shows are coercive and use the manipulative power of group pressure to bring out the worst in people," he said.
He said that one of "Kid Nation's" worst abuses of ethics was asking the children's parents to consent to filming without knowing the details of exactly how each day on the set would play out.
"Informed consent is not a foolproof process," White said. "How can you explain to someone that they will lose their capacity to make a decision? You can't say, 'Here's everything you need to know about being vulnerable to group pressure.'"
In defense of his bold, obviously misundersttod attempt at prepubescent utopia-building, the show's producer answered some of the accusations levied at the show:
The audience will discover they're watching "incredible people. ... They're young, but wise beyond their years, doing things you never could imagine," Forman said. There was no sex or drugs, he said in response to a later question.As for the effect on the children, Forman said that "almost to a one" they consider it a highlight of their lives.
"I exchange e-mails with every one of these kids and they're doing just great," he said.
Forman went on to describe to critics the contents of a particularly memorable e-mail from one of his favorite Kid Nation survivors, where the child admitted to being initially frightened and mentally unprepared for the experience, but revealed that after he survived the harrowing ordeal of their first elimination ceremony in which a homesick contestant was driven naked into the New Mexico desert, he learned the important life lesson that he had to "stop being such a little bitch and toughen up, or else I'd wind up the Wednesday lunch special in the mess hall."
- 'Lord of the Flies' Style Show Raises Ethical Concerns [ABC News]
- The Founding of 'Kid Nation' [TV Week]
- [TVWeek]
- 'Nation' Panel II: You Don't Need a Bike to Backpedal [TVWeek]
Comments
"High pressure situations", "serious emotional stress", "...coercive and use the manipulative power of group pressure to bring out the worst in people."
Reminds me I have to call Mom and tell her I won't be able to make Thanksgiving this year.
Have none of these concerned parties ever been to middle school? Mini-Deadwood's probably a cakewalk compared to the group pressure, mind games and physical tortures therein.
@Everybody Likes Pandas: Yeah, and at least on Kid Nation if some jackass beats you up or steals your stuff there's a camera there to record it.
Yeah, absolutely nothing wrong here, as I was saying to Lynndie England as we enjoyed a 'leash' evening. The culture's just fine.
My inner child definitely prefers this over farting in gym class.
I think the children should be allowed to exercise their right to bear arms in season two.
@Bonfiglio:
From the sound of the two articles, I'd say there won't be a season two.
Kid Nation might actually be a one of a kind, social experiment.
Nonsense! This is exactly what kids need! It's not like their parents are teaching them to take care of themselves, as the stupidity of various interns/former assistants have demonstrated. It's about time the TVs took care of it, since that's who's raising them anyway.
@Everybody Likes Pandas: @nick_r:
Exactly what I was thinking. Though it's a shame this isn't NBC and so we won't get a "shirtless gay 22-yr-old lifeguards" version on Bravo.
Though I guess that void is already filled by Palm Springs (at least the parts of Palm Springs that aren't dirt lots checkered with abandoned tires).
A pig. A big, ornary pig is what they need. And the props guys need to whip up a 6' sharpened rape stick STAT. So the little hellions can scamper after it, yelling murderously - yet in dulcet tones (Brit accents: asking too much?) - as the top two contestants swoon into hallucinatory visions involving (grown) man's inherent cruelty to (grown) man. With Iraq as the updated WWII.
Or if that's too high-brow for a national broadcast, maybe they simply need to perform the above after a losing boy is crowned Piggy then sent off in the bushes with a 10 minute head start. More scampering, less odious sophomoric allegories.
Some handwringing by the critics, sure. Awkward explanations to Lil' Timmy at home about forced penetration by foreign objects, you betcha!
But boffo ratings. And that's what counts. Right?
(Kind of heartwarming that in a country where some localities ban Harry Potter, The Lord of the Flies manages to sneak under book-burners' radar. Thank the GODS for illiterate book haters.)
Season One: Kid Nation
Season Two: Kid Nation - Battle Royale!
It'd probably be hard to top season one and if there were to be a season two, it'll most likely be out of the country because of labor laws and because a movie-prop ghost town would've already been done.
Hey, I know -- why don't they strand some kids on a desert island with nothing more than a book of matches and a couple of rocks?
It could be a cross between Gilligan's Island and The Blue Lagoon.
Magistar -
Have you seen Battle Royale? That's *totally* the concept in a nutshell.
Well, that and crossbows, Uzis, knives, personnel mines and a skillet.
Oh, and lots of unstated, hypermasculine homoerotic tension.
@trai_dep: Unfortunately I haven't seen it, but then, I see no reason the kids couldn't be armed to the hilt and let the factions fight for control.
I just wouldn't want to see any of that mamby-pamby idol and reward challenge stuff; We wouldn't want to pamper the kids.
Those parents should forgo their rights...
And arm the little shits to the teeth...
What fun!
M -
No worries. Who needs contestants rewarded by food challenges when there's all that fresh "long pig" lying about the island? Suppose a flint would be humane, though. Makes the meat less gamey, more taste-like-chicken good!
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