CBS Being Sued Over Child Labor Laws

Ken McCracken • August 23, 2007

This is an interesting concept for a show (sounds like a fascinating social experiment to me), but from a practical standpoint who in their right mind would put kids up to it?

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21 — The producers of a CBS reality show featuring 40 children living on their own in the New Mexico desert were warned by the state attorney general’s office while the show was being taped last spring that they might be violating the state’s child-labor laws, according to interviews with state officials and documents obtained Tuesday under the state’s open records act.
The show, “Kid Nation,” which is scheduled to premiere on CBS on Sept. 19, is a reality show whose premise is to take 40 children, ages 8 to 15, and place them in a “ghost town” in New Mexico to see if they can build a working society without the help of adults.
But after the production ended in mid-May, the parent of one child in the production complained to state officials that the children’s treatment bordered on abuse. Four children received medical treatment for accidentally drinking bleach, one child was burned on her face with hot grease while cooking in an unsupervised kitchen, and most of the children were required to work 14 hours or longer per day. They received a payment of $5,000 for their participation.
In interviews last week, CBS contended the children were not employees because they were not performing specific work for specific wages. A lawyer for CBS, Jonathan Anschell, said the network had received no indication that it was violating the law.

Of course, for the purposes of the lawsuits and legal complaints, didn’t these parents have to grant their permission to CBS in order to allow their kids to participate? Thus making them every bit as culpable as CBS is? They weren’t exactly lambs being led to the slaughter.
This reminds me a bit of the parents who sued Rockstar Games over the hidden sexual content in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. These parents had bought their kids a game where the entire point was to steal cars, commit crimes and beat/kill men and women to score points…but they got upset and filed a lawsuit when the game portrayed a character having sex with a hooker.
Meaning that the mass murder and crime was ok, but sex wasn’t.

Tags: Asshats, Entertainment, Politics

http://Array Tara

I’m sure the kids were not forced to continue participation if they decided they wanted out. The fact is, parents and kids alike knew what they were getting into, and as no laws were specifically broken, I don’t know why everyone is in such an uproar. I know society today doesn’t like kids to get dirty or be creative, for heaven’s sake look at a toy recall roster. I’d prefer to have my kids building a society, learning character, relationship skills, and the importance of manual labor than to waste hours a day in front of a TV or video game.
Kass

kid nation is an innocent show where children deal with the real matters of the world.they’ll learn to cook at some time in there life. if they get splashed by grease lets sue the world for giving us oil to burn ourselves with!!! I AM so mad that people are disgusted that children are put to work! if children cant boil water and put the food in and wait untill its cooked without sueing some one for getting hurt then the hope of the human race is in grave danger.And also may i point out the have the opertunity to leave!WHY IS BEING PUT TO WORK SO BAD! (and just as i previously learned about a kid drinking bleach Wow thats cbs’s fault that a kid couldnt see the bleach smell the horible odor and think mabey i shouldnt drink this!!!! WOW) my little sister who is 3 has never touches bleached whenever someone touches it or elen looks at it or mentions it she says bad bad bad bad bad x3
mamadrama

So my 11 year old son wants to go on Kid Nation. I told him he could run the household for 40 days, and I would pay for his college education.

I took him to the bank and had his signature added to the checking account. He was thrilled to write the checks for the taxes, insurance, utilities and mortgage. Pumped gas into the car. Absolutely LOVED swiping the debit card at the self-serve checkout in the supermarket. Seemed like a great reward for planning the week’s meals.

Cooking, cleaning, and making decisions – all went well for about 2 days. He made a Calzone Panini that was breathtaking. Day 3 the belt broke on the dryer, and the tank of the toilet began to leak heavily – (seems they don’t like getting hit hard with a basketball).

Repairing the dryer wasn’t so bad, but replacing the old gasket between the tank and the bowl – well, I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

He has a new found admiration for me, and has decided to leave it right there. I have a new panini maker and a grateful child.

We will be watching Kid Nation this fall. I can’t wait to hear his new-found perspectives!
bobo

I think that the CBS should just shoot Kid Nation in a state with NO CHILD LABOR LAWS it would be so much easier than to just shut down the show and make tons of kids that were dying to get on the show just have to quit! I also think that Even though 8 year olds are allowed to be on the show they should LEARN to behave and Do the RIGHT things.
Candice

My 9 year old girl said she wanted to be on Kid Nation and I said OK. We found out that CBS was being sued for that my little girl cried for 2 whole weeks and then I took her on the disney cruise to cheer her up!
bsd

You can sew anybody for anything. I bought some dryer parts and forgot to take the receipt. When I went back the store said it’s my fault I forgot it there. I wanted to sew them and a lawyer told me I had a good case.
Dave

Of course, for the purposes of the lawsuits and legal complaints, didn’t these parents have to grant their permission to CBS in order to allow their kids to participate? Thus making them every bit as culpable as CBS is? They weren’t exactly lambs being led to the slaughter.

First, no one is suing CBS. New Mexico’s attorney general warned them, and later the state’s legislature passed new tighter labor laws, meaning a new season would have to take place in a different state.

Also, in the event of a lawsuit, the State would file the complaint, and not the parents. So the lack of parental consent is not a relevant issue.
dreaming78

It does seem like an interesting experiment in a vacuum, but I’d never let my kid do it.

That being said, I’ve never met an 8 year old who wasn’t smart enough not to drink bleach. And this town had 4? (Assuming it was all younger kids–it’s worse if it’s the older ones!)
http://ewebsmith.com/ ews48

Child exploitation at its highest level. Charges should be filed against CBS and the parents.
Heather

The kids in this show have probably learned 100 times more meaningful lessons than any kid in school. They learn how to deal with kids that they don’t like instead of just hangin with their clicks, learn how to WORK for what they want (which is how the real world works)and learn how to deal with problems without a teacher or parent. These are the real things we need to be teaching our kids! As for some of them getting hurt, kids have gotten much worse WITH parental supervision. They make a mistake and I bet it won’t happen again. In this show kids are able to make mistakes and learn from it instead of us sheilding them from the real world for 18 years and then dropping them in and expecting them to succeed.
robert108

Lord of the Flies; this one has already been done, and done much better.
Jenna

I thnk they should never sue kid nation!!! It’s sending a good message to kids that no matter how small you are you can get a big job done. And Child labor laws shouldn’t be real. Kids can work and even if they are small.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

Oh dear Tara … and yes perhaps, I am a lil’ old fashion but, my view of getting dirty and being creative does not include drinking bleach and burning my face with frying oil. Call me a wuss but, I don’t think I want to come play at your house.
dpi

What is American society coming too? This isnt any worse than summer camp, and I never got paid to go. If these parents are complaing about such stupid things as grease splatters – oh come on. You’d think they were working in a coal mine. Were these kids held at gunpoint to drink bleach, or was it an accident that could occur at home ?
At least these kids were doing something other than being a couch potato playing games.
justusla

Laura Ingraham raked Kid Nation over the coals this morning pretty seriously. I had never heard of this new show so I checked it out during my lunch hour.
Surprise – I know one of the kids!
So I am going to wait until I can email his mom, who is a pretty conservative person, to see what her reaction was to having her son involved.

SayAnythingBlog.com

CBS Being Sued Over Child Labor Laws

Create a SAB Readerblog

Recent Comments