Kid Nation

The task for the 40 pre-teens and teens in a New Mexico “ghost town” is to “try to fix their forefather’s mistakes and build a new town that works.”
“This is to prove that kids of all age groups can actually take control, get organized and that you can actually work together cooperatively” I feel the concept of Kid Nation goes against the common discourse regarding children and teens.

“They’ll cope with regular childhood emotions and situations,” the participants are just coping with millions of Americans watching. The producers of Kid Nation and Thomas Hine’s beliefs go against the popularized ideas such as: the concept of the teenagers rests in turn on the idea of the adolescent as not quite competent person, beset by stress and hormones.

Although I have never seen the show I can see how this show would be entertaining; it is showing children in positive situations. Kid Nation is showing America that children can be leaders. This show is one of the few positive representations of children in the media.

“The makers of Kid Nation have been variously accused of violating local child labor laws, not paying participants enough, and abuse and neglect after several children suffered minor injuries in the course of filming” I don’t feel there is a problem with CBS because the parents or guardians of the participants had to sign an agreement, “which released CBS and its producers from responsibility for serious bodily injury, illness or death.” After reading and signing the agreement whatever happens is in the stations responsibility.

Although these articles talked about how these children were going to fail or how these kids are going against the “norm” but not one of the authors mentioned the prerequisites or the application process. What were the producers looking for? These children could possibly be very gifted leaders. The authors write about the Kid Nation participants are “regular” kids but are they? Greg Thot, for example his “jaw-dropping bio”, there are not many children, or adults for the instance that have such a resumé.