Have you guys ever heard of the show "Kid Nation" on CBS? Never heard of it; it's the funniest psychological experiment on children I've ever seen (depending on how much is real), I'm on episode 4. Watch this lol.

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[–]TiwakingMy Pronouns are Nigger and Boss Nigger 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

I would have liked to have been on the approval committee meeting for this tv show. Its like the best of /s/casualChildAbuse

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

It literally is child abuse. It's also psychological abuse. So many bad things supposedly happened off camera which is what led to the show getting canceled.

I can't believed it lasted for around 3 seasons, and on CBS nonetheless - I'm sure the creators had a fun time with the psychological child-town-economy entertainment experiment.

[–]TiwakingMy Pronouns are Nigger and Boss Nigger 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (5 children)

Yes. It is child abuse. I cant even imagine how many waivers the PARENTS had to sign to get admitted onto the show.

I doubt if there was even an approval committee for this show. They probably had a sweepstake for "Stupidest Reality Show" and this one won so they went with it.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

You're probably right lol, either that, or it was pitched very differently to the parents; as a contest (as one child of the 40 wins 20k every week determined by the 4 "town-leaders" for their 4 week stay), rather than a child reality show/psychological-social experiment.

I laugh each time they flash a warning before a disturbing scene saying:

"Warning: The following scene may contain content disturbing for children"

lmao, the show is ALL about children, and involves no one but children. If they acknowledge it may be disturbing for children to view, wouldn't it be disturbing for them to live out?

There's an episode where they have to come to terms with killing/cleaning/preparing/cooking animals themselves (some of them are as young as 7-8), and there's even scenes where they break down and curse - I've heard "bitch" and "fuck" thrown around a few times (not sure why it isn't censored, maybe whoever uploaded the series found an uncensored version of the show?), and the kids even had a few meetings about the need for the "cussing" to stop. But each episode, they add an element that they know will cause controversy or chaos (as it does among adults, they basically are observing how kids react to it), once peace has been established (like religion or killing for survival as examples when a food source was already established), which leads to obvious psychological distress and sometimes kids even acting out physically. It really is like watching a Lord of the Flies scenario unravel, except you have sadistic adults fanning the flames.

I don't know how they got away with it for so long. I can't lie though, after just taking a semester filled with courses involving Child Development, and Developmental Theories/Cognitive Development, this is interesting to watch lol.

[–]TiwakingMy Pronouns are Nigger and Boss Nigger 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I can't lie though, after just taking a semester filled with courses involving Child Development, and Developmental Theories/Cognitive Development, this is interesting to watch lol.

This show as a brutal way to introduce kids to Operant conditioning

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Not trying to sound like a know-it-all, because I honestly (and obviously) don't know everything. But this show is a great way to permanently stunt someone's development when they're in a sensitive stage of cognitive development, or fuck them up for life/bring out (and possibly instill) behaviors or conditions they would have never displayed due to their environment and peers (via things like negative scaffolding and environmental stressors, which are all there, potentially triggering a recessive gene to take dominance, which often happens during these ages of development/puberty. This happens more than you think - this is partially and sometimes the sole reason why neurological conditions among others, as well as mental illnesses appear during adolescent/young adult years). This "show" literally has all the makings of a psychological research study/experiment.

However, this shit would never get approved as a study in mainstream academia; the number one rule in research is to do no harm, and if you're not sure whether you're putting a participant(s) at risk of harm or not, you don't do it if you even have to question. We've learned a lot about human nature and development through experiments we now consider barbaric (and for good reason; they caused permanent cognitive and developmental damage on the individual, giving them a permanent lowered quality of life), which is why this type of shit is not allowed in mainstream academia anymore.

As interesting as this is, it would never fly in academia because of the lasting potential damage it could have on the kids (and probably did have on some of them). How the fuck they made it into a TV show that lasted 3+ seasons is beyond me.

[–]TiwakingMy Pronouns are Nigger and Boss Nigger 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thats odd. I just saw this on imgur about the boy who played Danny from the Shining. What an interesting contrast!

https://imgur.com/gallery/FR7axKr

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It sounds like Stanley Kubrick went out of his way to preserve Lloyd's innocence by only showing him highly edited footage that removed all the scary bits? It also seems as if they all tried to create a kid-friendly set when he was around so he wouldn't get messed up lol. Kubrick was an interesting man, I don't think I'll ever understand/know the truth about him either.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

This show is literally like Lord of the Flies, in a "Wild Western Environment". Religion enters in episode 4, and the Christian kids don't like the Jewish ones so much lol.. Causes some more divisions but I don't wanna spoil for anyone who's going to watch.. It's fucked up, yet it's become a guilty pleasure.

[–]TiwakingMy Pronouns are Nigger and Boss Nigger 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

After thinking about it.....I dont think the creators of this ever read "Lord of the Flies".

I dont think the creators of this ever read a book. Maybe they read TV Guide.