'Kid Nation'

Is it a good idea for parents to allow their children to be used as ratings fodder for a television network?

The parents of 40 children said, "Yes."

Those parents all had their reasons. The executive producer of the CBS "reality" show "Kid Nation" readily admitted that not all had their offspring's best interests at heart.

"Sure, I mean, there were some parents who ... absolutely thought of this as a 40-day vacation from their children," said Tom Forman.

And all the parents signed 22-page legal documents absolving CBS and the producers of any responsibility for injuries, working conditions or unsafe housing and agreeing not to sue even if their child died during production.

It's not hard to understand why a for-profit corporation would use kids for ratings. But the question of whether parents should send their children — some of them as young as 8 — off for two months is at the center of all the controversy swirling around "Kid Nation."

The show features 40 kids between the ages of 8 and 15 "rebuilding" a New Mexico ghost town and building their own society. "Kid Nation" documents their trials, tribulations and triumphs.

It's not a competition. Nobody is voted out, although kids could leave before the six weeks were over. (And, according to Forman, some of them did.)

The kids were not allowed to call or e-mail their parents for two months. (The only exception: the one child chosen each week by his or her peers to receive a gold star — a literal gold star worth $20,000 — was allowed one call home.)

Among the controversies surrounding the show:

• Did the producers and CBS violate New Mexico's child labor laws? While participants were each paid $5,000 — plus those $20,000 bonuses — "These kids were not employees of CBS," CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler insisted.

"The participants are just that. They're participants. They're not acting," Forman said. "And on that basis, we didn't see a labor problem."

He argued it was like summer camp they just happened to film.

"They woke up whenever they felt like it," Forman said. "They set their own bedtime.... We taped whatever happened."

Others are less sure. Reportedly, kids were being filmed up to 18 hours a day.