Spotlight on reality kids

Reality television is the most popular form of entertainment for 2009, but what negative effect is this phenomenon having on the children living in the spotlight? There are no laws protecting children like those of Jon & Kate Gosselin; the parents have a moral obligation to protect them.

“As always, my first priority remains our children,” Kate Gosselin said during her heart-wrenching divorce.

Is that really true, Kate? What was that secret open-marriage contract I heard about? I’m sure that your top priority, while hiding that from the media, was the mental health of your children—six of whom will hear, when they’re old enough to understand, that mommy and daddy are only spending time with them, going here and there, to better the “ratings” and hold up their end of the contract.

“Our kids are still my number one priority,” Jon Gosselin also claimed.

Jon! Who are you trying to fool? When your daughter, Cara, turns 16, I’m sure she’ll Google your name. What will she find? Pictures of you making her the “number one priority” as you hang your arm around Kate in one picture, and an arm around Deanna Hummel in the next. Smooth.

But Jon and Kate are definitely not the only parental disgraces on reality television.
 “I have no interest in being famous. I’d love to vanish from the public eye as soon as I can,” Nadya Suleman, the crazed Octomom said.

I’m positive she meant that, especially after the public reaction slowly turned from sighs of admiration to death threats when the people found out their taxes were going toward supporting the public assistance-abusing, financially dependent single mother who refuses to get a job and a nanny. Something tells me that the $250,000 her 14 children will earn collectively over three years of being on the reality television show won’t be going into their college funds. Like I said before, and it wouldn’t hurt to reiterate, there are not any laws that protect these kids.

“People are always saying that Hollywood messes up kids. I’m like, ‘No, families mess up kids!’ I grew up in Hollywood, and I’m perfectly fine. If my children want to go into the entertainment business, I won’t stop them, as long as they’re passionate about it,” Tori Spelling said.

What if the child is in the spotlight against their will? Is the family completely to blame? Or should we, as viewers, expect more integrity from the producers of shows such as “Inn Love” and “Home Sweet Hollywood?” When will viewers decide that it’s no longer aesthetically pleasing to zoom in on a child’s tears and embarrassment?

I don’t have experience being raised on a reality television show, but I’m sure I have had great, open and honest communication with my parents without several cameras capturing every one of my pathetic and vulnerable moments throughout my childhood. Nothing has ever made me desire the life of kids born to Jon and Kate, Octomom or even Tori Spelling.

No one can predict how these kids will turn out spiritually and emotionally, but I’m willing to bet on many visits to therapists and psychiatrists full of stories of tears shed over years spent tormented under the negligent authority of wealth and fame driven parents.