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The new CBS reality show "Kid Nation" has inspired appropriate controversy even before its scheduled premiere on September 19th. Promotional materials describe 40 children who are disgusted with the way adults have "messed up" the world and so will create a new society in the New Mexico desert with, the show promises, "no parents and no teachers." What an inspiring concept!
No, I haven't seen the show (because it's not yet been made available to critics) but its publicity materials reveal a distinctly socialist bent, with youthful idealists "learning to share everything, without greed." Fidel Castro himself would be proud. Meanwhile, the age range of the kids is itself cause for queasiness: with eight-year olds entrusted over weeks to unrelated fifteen year-olds, while TV producers openly encourage sleazy speculation about their various and complex and unconventional relationships.
A release form signed by the parents of the kids absolves the producers of responsibility if any of the participants--including the eight-year-olds--comes home with sexually transmitted diseases. "Kid Nation" serves as one more media effort to undermine the authority and importance of parenthood and adulthood in general, while shamefully sexualizing even pre-pubescent children. Yet another noble contribution from network TV -- congratulations!
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