Reality Shows Under Fire

"Jon & Kate Plus 8"

In May, Pennsylvania's Labor Department opened an investigation into whether the controversial reality show is complying with state child labor laws.

And on the CBS "Early Show," attorney and child advocate Gloria Allred said recently she worried about the children's lack of privacy. "Everybody -- including children -- should have a zone of privacy," Allred said. "We don’t know what price these little ones are gonna pay because their lives are ... large on the television screen."  

Kate’s brother and sister-in-law, Jodi Kreider, has also accused Kate of putting money ahead of the kids. "'Jon and Kate Plus 8' is not reality," Kreider told RadarOnline.

For his part, though, Jon Gosselin says he doesn't believe his kids are being exploited. "I don't even want to use that word, because I think it's ridiculous," he told People magazine in June. "We have healthy, happy, well-adjusted, educated kids. They're bouncing around and having a good time."

"Kid Nation"

This CBS reality show -- whose premise was putting 40 kids ages 8 to 15 in a New Mexico ghost town for 40 days -- instantly found itself at the center of controversy upon its debut. Critics said the children would not be able to make a society in the wilderness, and the New Mexico attorney general investigated as to whether child labor laws were violated or if inspectors were illegally kept from checking out the set.

One mother apparently complained to authorities that her daughter's face had been burned by cooking grease and that four other children accidentally drank bleach.

"'Kid Nation' emphasizes some of the worst aspects of society, such as group inequalities and fighting for limited resources," Joseph Allen, an adolescent psychologist at the University of Virginia told USA Today at the time. "They re-create these bad things on purpose and then subject kids to them.

 

1 | 2 | 3