I refuse to give it any publicity, but you probably know the one: where a mix of well-knowns and complete nobodies lounge around in a camp in Africa, eating absurdly revolting concoctions.

There is only one thing that interests me in this. Is it more ghastly to watch these programmes or to appear on them?

For the record, I loathe reality television of nearly every sort. I have no interest in how many taipans a woman can smuggle in a suitcase of baby clothes.

I don't care whether someone stuffed their made-for-television renovation, and I certainly don't care how many retired cricket players it takes to drink a gallon of buffalo urine.

A careful perusal of television ratings suggests I am certainly not alone, but with a plethora of free-to-air stations now available, as well as even more subscription channels for those so inclined, all of this is grist for the mill.

Reality television is cheap and easy to produce, and if you produce enough of it, someone will watch at least some of it.

Try as I might, I can't get into it. Even worse, I wonder in what dark corners of our brains do we find the neuroreceptors that light up when this stuff flashes across our screens.

You see, the apparent addiction some people have to reality television can't be the process of rational reaction to what they are watching.

It has to be some deep chemical trigger against which we seem powerless to act; it is a sort of fiendish prurience.

While viewers are encouraged to cheer for their favourite participants, those same participants are reduced to nothing more than objects of viewer gratification.

You can vote to embarrass them with a disgusting challenge, reward them for gratifying you, or dispose of them altogether. Somewhere along the way we run the risk of treating the participants as less than human.

Some cruel people might say that is a fair call. After all, who would willingly humiliate themselves on television by baring their inner secrets, deliberately behaving badly to others to garner notoriety, or sleeping with a succession of suitors on intimate dates?

I can't understand where the producers find such people, but I do worry about the nature of the shows, especially the way in which young women are routinely exploited in various sexual ways.

The producers must know, in the long run, that this is not going to be good for most of the participants. Yet they happily take advantage nonetheless.

Now, there is an old adage in the law that volunteers can't complain about their injuries. However, I think decent people have to consider the ethical implications of the shows they produce, the people who might be harmed, and the messages they send.

So, what does this say about the viewer and the viewed? Who is the more flawed? Is it worse to watch or be watched, and what do we say to our children about such shows?

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