The Consequences of Children on Reality TV

There’s a scene in “Bruno” where Sacha Baron Cohen holds an audition for the “hottest baby photo shoot ever.” The intent is to reveal how fame-seeking parents will agree to anything -- including putting their babies in fast cars without a car seat or next to “dead or dying animals” -- to get their toddlers on camera.

It would be astonishing … if it hadn’t already become so common on the small screen. 

On shows such as “Supernanny,” “Wife Swap,” “Denise Richards -- It’s Complicated,” “My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad,” and “Kid Nation” and others, the harmful effects that come from constantly being on camera at a young age is becoming a matter of concern to child-care professionals and even fans of some shows. 

And did we mention “Jon & Kate Plus 8”?

Even in this tabloid era, the disintegration of the Gosselins’ marriage and the effect the TLC show and the media attention is having on the couple’s young sextuplets and twins has family and show followers warning that things have gone too far.

Kate’s brother and her sister-in-law, Kevin and Jodi Krieder, both of whom have appeared on the show, recently told CBS that they believed the children are “being exploited” by parents obsessed with “fame and the fortune.”

While empirical data  to gauge  the effect of nonstop media exposure on children is hard to come by, the anecdotal evidence  doesn’t look good -- even if the ratings are great.

* Paul and Susan Young accused “Supernanny” producers of encouraging their five sons to exaggerate their unruly behavior for the cameras on the U.K. version of the series in 2005. "They left us with children that were more naughty than when they arrived," the mother told the British press. The fact that the Young’s house might have been burned down by one of the children in 2007 certainly didn’t help.

* “The Real Housewives of Orange County’s” Gina DeLeon believes that appearing on the show had "a devastating effect" for her children, who were not on the show initially. When series regular Laurie Waring hooked up with Gina’s ex-husband George Peterson on season 2, he wanted to the kids to join him in front of the cameras. "They begged not to be on it," DeLeon told TheWrap, but "George forced them to do it.” DeLeon added that the children “got teased and bullied at school, it was not a pleasant or growing experience for them."

* Professionals like Charlie Sheen and Pamela Anderson have consciously kept their children off their reality TV excursions. Sheen even fought an unsuccessful legal battle to keep his young daughters off his ex-wife Denise Richard’s E! series. (For more on celebrity reality TV shows and children, see accompanying story.)

 “These shows can open the kids to a level of public scrutiny, of shame and of failure,” notes Dr. Drew Pinsky, host of VH-1’s “Celeb Rehab and co-author of "The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism Is Seducing America." “You have to ask yourself if that is conducive to positive outcomes as they get older.”

Pinsky puts the responsibility on the parents and the producers.

 

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