Editorial: Who’s kidding whom?

Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007 | 6:55 a.m.

CBS Television executives are defensive about their yet-to-be-aired reality program "Kid Nation," which is something akin to "Bonanza" meets "Lord of the Flies."

The network took 40 children between the ages of 8 and 15 and put them on a New Mexico movie ranch, tasking them with forming a society in the re-created ghost town Bonanza City - without the interference of adults. Some critics, including the mother of a child who was on the show, say the network skirted child labor laws and exploited the children, charges the network disputes.

CBS is touchy because it thinks this show will be a shining success for the fall season and has provided an extensive legal justification, complete with parental permission, to defend the program. The children spent six weeks away from school, without a tutor on site, as the network taped the show this spring before New Mexico's child labor laws were tightened this summer. The network took advantage of a legal loophole, allowing long hours for children on TV and film sets.

The show's producer, Tom Forman, characterized the shows as a "summer camp," telling Television Week that the children weren't working. They were, he said, "participants in a reality show."

That is laughable. It seems clear that even if this was legal, it certainly crossed boundaries of good sense, if nothing else, on the part of the parents and the network.

In apparent hopes of fame and fortune, parents pulled their children out of school for six weeks to work up to 14 hours a day. They did various tasks, including cooking, cleaning, competing in inane contests and, in one case, pushing wagons for a mile. One child was burned cooking. Others accidentally drank bleach out of a soda bottle and needed medical attention.

The network sees this as a ratings bonanza and is already planning a second season.

We see it as a bust. CBS should stop. Child exploitation is not entertainment.