Kid Nation (aka Extreme Child Neglect )

[theotherguy]

So there's this new reality show coming out on september 19th called Kid Nation which puts 40 kids ages 8-14 into a town with no adult supervision or guidance, and has them live there all alone. (Well, except for the camera men). They are expected to form their own government, find and prepare their own food and water, vote on issues and privileges, etc.

I find it extremely interesting, but also a bit immoral. For instance, there have already been lawsuits involving some of the children. One of them got severe burns attempting to cook and spilling grease all over her arm, and another one accidentally drank bleach and was poisoned. These kids could very easily hurt themselves, and their parents are just signing waivers to allow them to be virtually neglected. They are filming it in New Mexico because of the relaxed child labor laws there.

I don't know, it might be interesting, but I just think there's something wrong with exposing kids to that sort of thing for fame and money.

 

[Qonfused]

Sounds pretty awesome, tbh.

 

[theotherguy]

Yeah, I think its an awesome idea, and should be really interesting. I'm just saying I'd hate to see these kids get hurt.

 

[Fliko]

It'd be nice to see age limit of 8-16, but w/e.
It sounds very cool, but also shows the cruelty reality TV can bring

 

[French Ninja]

They better have challenges like "avoid the escaped pedophile while staying in the fenced in compound" or I'm not watching.

 

[Qonfused]

What if the pedophile gets them? Does it go to commercial?

 

[French Ninja]

What if the pedophile gets them? Does it go to commercial?

DVD Extras. :O

 

[Qonfused]

Hahaha.

 

[15357]

Aw, man, I'd love to see them break up into factions and try to beat easch other to death with frying pans.


Wait, that doesn't sound right. It was awesome in my head, but now that it's in print, it sounds kinda..... gruesome.

 

[Sulkdodds]

It's going to be like the Midwich Cuckoos.

Ten to one they're going to turn out to be far better at this nation-building thing than any of us.

 

[Darkside55]

I was talking about this a week or two ago in the HL2.net steam chat. It's going to become Lord of the Flies.

But it actually looks very interesting and I'll probably watch it.

 

[jverne]

did nobody watch the South park episode?

 

[brink's]

Sounds interesting but quite immoral. I'm surprised the network was even allowed to go through with this.

 

[Laivasse]

I'm in! I shaved and wore my uniform and they took me for a slightly large 14.

It's going to be a fun 40 days - watch out for mah antix, suckaz

 

[Direwolf]

Seriously, a 14 old kid drank bleach? Doesn't that seem like a bad idea by that age?

 

[Thunderclap]

When I saw the advertisments for this show I thought, "Well, it could be good, Lord-of-the-Flies-style, but there's no way anything really interesting could happen because of all the supervision and child protection laws."

Now that I know CBS ignored all of those guidelines I think this show is going to be really good.

This is going to be an absolutely fascinating show. This is the sort of thing that sociologists and psychologists have wanted to do for generations but could never do because it was considered inhumane. And now we get to watch it on TV and have the good parts edited for us?

Yay for the downward spiral of American entertainment!

What this reminds me of most is the approach used for the 1963 Lord of the Flies, one of the first independent films made and distributed successfully. They were able to get an island for the summer from a retail chain (iirc Woolsworth), talked a bunch of well to do british families vacationing in the carribbean into letting them have their kids for the duration of the summer, and not CHARGE the parents anything for the privilege of a free 'camp'. Only that time there was about 60 sixty boys and crew of maybe twenty, they also didn't have a script, because no one wrote one, they just used the book and shot scenes out of it (there's no script credit in the film because of that, it's simply credited "from the novel by William Golding"). The boys were all housed together in an abandoned building and started their own newspaper (there was an old press in the building), but they also got so into the story and the breakup into tribes that they convinced the actor playing Piggy that there was no other way to film his death than by actually killing him, and he believed it, and went into that day of filming thinking he was going to die (but going to do it so the boys wouldn't think him a coward).

The crew was horrified when they found out why the kid was so messed up that day, and afterward the director said the only thing that Golding got wrong in the book was the timeframe, it wouldn't take a month, it would only take a weekend.

 

[MJ12]

and another one accidentally drank bleach and was poisoned.

HAHAHA, HOW DOES SOMEONE ACCIDENTALLY DRINK BLEACH?!

HOW OLD ARE THESE KIDS?!

 

[Kamikazie]

... Seriously?

which puts 40 kids ages 8-14 into a town

 

[L3adCannon]

Sounds bloody awesome, and killing babies is also cool.

 

[theotherguy]

After watching the trailer, I have come to the conclusion that the media has waaaaaaaaay misrepresented the show. It looks very tame actually, similar to a dumbed-down survivor.

Adults supervise them the entire time, camera men, EMTs and the host are always around telling them what to do. The government and rules are premade for them, and people get into power by winning "challenges", not by votes or brute force. The kids are divided into premade teams and have premade roles that they have to fulfill.

Looks like just another reality show then, just with kids.

 

[Fliko]

Adults supervise them the entire time, camera men, EMTs and the host are always around telling them what to do. The government and rules are premade for them, and people get into power by winning "challenges", not by votes or brute force. The kids are divided into premade teams and have premade roles that they have to fulfill.

Eh?
Challenges are done for them to do roles. Roles are decided about how well you do a challenge.
After watching a trailer, this show concept seems REALLY COOL, and I mean, the kids can leave WHENEVER they feel like, so can it really be that bad?
Maybe parents will start to respect kids more if the kids succeed in this show. That'd really help stop a lot of Child Neglection in the world.