"It's hard to find good adult reality characters. They all know what they're supposed to do. You need participants who didn't grow up on this stuff."

That is, you need children to exploit. But isn't it wrong to expose children to mockery? Isn't it evil to take advantage of their lack of understanding of reality show editing? And exactly how did CBS steer clear of violating child labor laws and compulsory schooling laws when it filmed "Kid Nation"? They left 40 kids in a ghost town and filmed all their waking hours. The kids had to take care of themselves and solve their own problems -- for our entertainment. And there were no teachers, even though it was not summer vacation time?

How’d they do it? By literally declaring the production a "summer camp" instead of a place of employment; by taking advantage of a loophole in New Mexico labor rules [exempting TV productions] two months before the state legislature tightened the law, and using a ghost town that wasn’t exactly a ghost town....

"We would wake up the kids at 7 a.m. and were shooting them until sometimes midnight," said a member of the production crew....

"We were essentially running a summer camp," Mr. Forman said. "They’re participants in a reality show. They’re not ‘working.’ They’re living and we’re taping what’s going on. That’s the basis behind every [legal] document for the show."...

"We were basically camp counselors that followed the kids instead of led," Mr. Forman said. "We were the safety net if things had ever really got out of hand."...

"The kids loved it," one crew member said. "Some have been depressed returning to normal life."

Next season? Factory camp! Come on kids! It's a big fun game! And you can live in this run-down tenement building! No parents! No teachers!