Click to play videoHollywood: Fourteen-year old D-K is one of forty children ages eight to 15 who were placed in the New Mexico desert for 40 days this past spring, for the upcoming CBS reality series Kid Nation.
“These children make their own meals on wood burning stoves. They do their own laundry, they have their own economy and they run their own stores,” says TV show host, Jonathan Karsh.
While CBS, on its website, says the participants will "cope with regular childhood emotions and situations" including homesickness, the show is embroiled in an adult-sized controversy regarding the children’s living and working' conditions.
The Attorney General of New Mexico is investigating whether child labor laws were violated and whether the children were put in potentially harmful situations for the show.
"We can find out whether there is evidence that these kids were put in danger,” says Phil Sisneros, office of Attorney General.
Santa Fe Sheriff Greg Solano got two angry letters which prompted his investigation into the allegations -- one from a participant's mother who says her daughter got burned by hot cooking grease and the other, unsigned included similar claims.
“Four children drank bleach. A girl was burned in her face with grease. A girl vomited repeatedly. A teenager urinated in the canteen of a younger boy. And, condoms were placed over microphones given to minors purportedly to protect microphones from the rain,” says Solano.
Kid Nation's producers have described the show as a social experiment.
"We literally just tried to take a giant step back and shoot and see what happened next,” says creator at Upfronts, Tom Foreman.
The parents of the participants are known to have signed a confidentiality clause that carries a penalty of up to $five million. CBS says the series was filmed within all applicable laws.
Furthermore, parents signed a 22-page waiver acknowledging the risks involved including injury or even death.
Summer camp or child labor nightmare, Kid Nation is scheduled to premiere mid September.
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