“I'm starting to sense in the room what I'm going to call mild reservations about the show,” one reporter dryly observed near the end of a particularly contentious TV Press Tour session, for CBS’s upcoming reality show “Kid Nation.”

In it, 40 kids, aged 8-15, settle at a New Mexico “ghost town” and try to establish their own society. More we cannot say, because CBS has not made an episode available for preview. But we know what you’re thinking, and series creator/executive producer Tom Forman wishes to allay your fears:

“I don't think any of us were unaware of ‘Lord of the Flies.’ And to answer about how quickly did it come up, six seconds. The minute we started talking about it, we stopped and said, ‘Are we making a reality “Lord of the Flies?”’ and said, ‘Well, there will be elements.’ I'm not going to deny the comparison -- these are kids living on their own. That said, like every reality show, there are adults off-camera waiting to step in if kids got violent.”

The show has come under fire because it apparently exploited a loophole in New Mexico child-labor laws (the series passed itself off as a summer camp, which meant it could shoot the kids for as long as it wanted, as opposed to a TV production, which limits the hours kids can work and insists upon on-set tutors), a loophole the N.M. legislature has since reportedly sealed.

The Television Critics Association has been a world leader in decrying unfair child-labor practices since 1988, when the embarrassing Ritz-Carlton Shoeshine Scandal was brought to the public’s attention. Since then, the TCA has championed the cause of eradicating child labor – except, of course, for those critics who wear Gap clothing made in Cambodia.

Herewith, the transcript from the “Kid Nation” press conference, in which the intrepid men and women of the TCA seek the facts as to whether the children participating in the show were in any way exploited in order to produce low-budget programming to entertain an undemanding American viewing audience:

ALL TCA PRESS TOUR TRANSCRIPTS ARE PREPARED IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING PRESS CONFERENCES. DUE TO THE SPEED WITH WHICH THESE TRANSCRIPTS ARE PREPARED, COMPLETE ACCURACY CANNOT BE GUARANTEED.

QUESTION: Does it trouble you at all that, if I follow this correctly, that the way that you filmed "Kid Nation" would be illegal in a number of states? Does that give you pause in any way, like "Okay, we can do it in these certain states. It's legal”?

TOM FORMAN: First off, I'm not trying to dodge the question, but I'm not a lawyer, and I don't really know the answer to the legality of it -- of other states' laws. But speaking to the ethical part of it, does it give me pause? Is it something I think about? Of course. I think we made a decision early on that we were going to give these kids an incredible experience, that we were going to find kids who wanted this experience, kids that went to things like Scout camps and model U.N.’s. This was going to be a little higher energy, and it was going to be on television.

QUESTION: OK, then, let’s speak to some of the participants on the panel. How do you regard your experience on “Kid Nation?”

JACK: I thought it was great. I started out as the leader of my choir group, and from there, I amassed power, and finally, I was able to crush my chief foe, Ralph.

RALPH: Initially, it seemed kind of fun. I was trying to maintain a sense of order, but a lot of the kids ended up not really thinking that was necessary, and they sort of got behind Jack, and then there was that thing with Piggy, and Jack prevailed.

PIGGY: Ralph was nice to me. A lot of the other kids weren’t. Well, let me put it another way – none of the other kids were. I didn’t like it when they took my inhaler. That was mean. I mean, what good is adherence to social strictures established by adult a posteriori mores when you don’t have an inhaler?

ROGER: Exactly, lard-butt. A social structure based upon a priori theories works for those of us who like to cave in skulls with large rocks, and “Kid Nation” had lots of rocks.

JACK: Oh, and don't forget the entrail dance. That was cool.

SAMNERIC: We liked making waffles.

SIMON: I liked the waffles. Look, it wasn’t a perfect system, but it was a whole lot better than serving as an altar boy in Cardinal Mahoney’s Archdiocese.

QUESTION: Why this idea? Who's the audience for it?

TOM FORMAN: I think I'm the audience for it.

By the way, Forman added that if “Kid Nation” is successful, the sequel, which will be shot in Jakarta, will be entitled “Kid Shoe Factory.”