Kid Nation

Kid Nation

Creating little capitalists

By Ellen Goodman

Kid Nation was going to be a show to see how 40 kids, ages 8-15 years old would do creating their own nation. They were sent to a ghost town in New Mexico we just a film crew. I would like to start by saying this show was canceled May 14, 2008 before it was even able to premiere. It was charged with child endangerment by violating child labor laws. Parents had signed a really “creepy” consent form and none of the film crew stepped in to support crying, homesick child while filming.

The idea behind the show was quite interesting to me but it is clearly abusive to children’s rights. The producers wanted to see how the children could do better than their forefathers when given the task to “try to fix their forefathers’ mistakes and build a new town that works.” They called the child, “pioneers” and the town was called Bonanza. The problem was that the producers set the ground rules not the kids. These Hollywood producers need to make this show entertaining so they added competition, class conflicts, and consumerism. The kids had a war and the winners/losers were labeled to be in different classes; “upper class,” “merchants,” “cooks,” and “laborers.” These kids were provided with paychecks according to their work.

Goodman calls these the three basic C’s (competition, class, and consumerism).  She explains that these C’s are also found in our United States parenting skills. From celebrity parent bashing of Britney Spears to fears of killer cribs, parents have “become so absorbed in worrying about the side rails on cribs that we lose focus on the cultural environment that encases all of us. And there is no bike helmet that can protect our children’s brain from the three C’s.” So overall these parents were so entrenched in the three C’s they were willing to put their children on a “mini-survivor” show just to make money and possibly be on TV.

After researching Kid Nation and reading a few reviews from other people, I realized this did air and people did get to watch it. L_Miller wrote, “The kids are All Right” as a title for his review. I feel this has two different meanings. First, the kids are fine, safe, and happy. Second, the kids are all correct. This person also add, “They're so wonderfully honest, and sometimes they like each other and sometimes they hate each other but they crash into things, look around, dust themselves off and move right along. They are all right, and they find their way, and their strength and resilience makes me feel better about the future of the world for an hour on a Wednesday night.” This person made me think that this kids actually could help our country move toward a more positive place but I did not see the show so I can’t say that for sure.

Another review from tackshop titled the post, “I couldn't believe parents would let their children do this but after watching I thought it was a great experience.” With this headline, it makes me want to watch this show because I too can not believe parents would allow their children to do this. I will close by saying that their were only 13 reviews on IMDb.com and they were all positive for this show. Many of them were sad it ended so soon. This was shocking to me.