CBS sued over Kid Nation...

My very good friend C and I had an interesting exchange on the topic of the reality show Kid Nation a few weeks ago here on Liberal Common Sense. An anonymous poster who claimed to be a parent of one of the children on the show also commented during that discussion. Just a short time ago I got a phone call from my best friend Holly who followed that discussion and heard about a lawsuit being filed against CBS over what happened on Kid Nation. She was kind enough to send me the link to Participant's mom raps kids reality show

Part of our discussion concentrated on the issue of injury or liability, so reading this was interesting:

Janis Miles of Fayetteville, Ga., said in a letter that her 12-year-old daughter, Divad Miles, was spattered on her face with grease while cooking potatoes on a wood stove, and that four other children required medical attention after they accidentally drank bleach.

Her daughter also had a rash that had caused scarring, and sunburn on her face and hands, Miles wrote.

The children are to be paid $5,000 apiece when the series airs, and one child per episode was awarded a solid-gold star by the town's elected government worth $20,000, Forman said.

According to documents obtained from the New Mexico attorney general's office, parents signed a 22-page agreement in which they waived their rights to sue the network or production company if their children died or were injured. The agreement also acknowledged that the participants "will have no privacy," except while using bathrooms or changing rooms.

This last paragraph leads to one of my original points, what kind of a parent would sign a 22 page waiver that states in return for being paid $5,000 a week with a chance at winning $20,000 that states if their child was killed or injured they felt it was basically worth the risk. No wonder there didn't seem to be any concerns of liability, parents signed away their children's rights on that one.