Balloon boy story and reality TV culture: What are parents thinking?

TLC, the network behind the show featuring Jon and Kate Gosselin, e-mailed a terse, "We will pass," in response to a request for comment. The legal affairs department at Mark Burnett Productions, one of the top reality-show houses in Los Angeles, says it has heard no rumblings about reevaluating minors' participation in programming.

But change is long overdue, argues former child star Paul Petersen, founder and president of A Minor Consideration, a child actor advocacy group.

"Children are chattel," says the Gardena, Calif., resident, who played the son on "The Donna Reed Show" (1958 to 1966). California, he says, is the only state where minors own their earnings. (The law entitling parents to their children's wages was changed in the Golden State in 2000.)

Improvements in state child-labor laws have come slowly. Even New York, which has seen centuries of children working on Broadway, has been slow to move.

"Why do you think most child-heavy movies and television shows are filmed in places like North Carolina, where the child-labor laws are lax or nonexistent?" says Mr. Petersen.

The eight young children in "Jon & Kate Plus 8," filmed in Pennsylvania for the past four years, did not have child work permits until this past summer, dad Jon Gosselin acknowledged recently.

Concern over the handling of the Gosselin children prompted the Pennsylvania Department of Labor to announce a review of its child labor regulations earlier this year, says Beverly Hills employment lawyer Kelly Scott. But more regulation may not be the only answer.

"Enforcement of existing law needs to be stepped up, and more important," Mr. Scott adds, "some introspection as a society about what's going on."

Advocate Mr. Petersen says he is hopeful that the concern generated by the Heene family's alleged actions might have an effect. After all, he says, "people probably don't realize many producers are more concerned about protecting animals on a set than they are children's needs. Spiders' and dogs' rights are more carefully guarded than children's."

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