Kate Plus 8 and Children's Privacy

You may have already heard the glorious news....

Kate Plus 8 has been cancelled.

The show seemed to start the reality show trend of putting children's personal lives on television. You might be asking: what's wrong with that?

Well, for starters, I'd never want my mom to share her vast home video collection of me and my silly antics with the world. I would have probably been okay with that when I was a kid. Because I didn't know any better. These kids are far too young to understand what it means to have your personal life public and so aren't mature enough to make the decision to be on tv or not -- if they were even given the choice.

It has generally become trendy and very acceptable to divulge personal aspects of children's lives thanks to social media, specifically mommy blogging. I have been appalled by the information and photographs people publish on the internet of their children. Tales of diarrhea in public (actually in one Jon and Kate episode, the kids were sick and the cameras followed Kate around as she collected their soiled clothes and linens), pictures of scarred, bloated faces after surgery... I understand that motherhood is tough and social media provides a network to vent and read, but does that trump your child's right to privacy?