Inspired by the YouTube model of user-created content, a growing number of television networks are soliciting video contributed by viewers--and many of these efforts involve children and teens. Last month, CNN debuted a new series called "Children of the Storm," featuring video from 11 New Orleans high school students as they share their experiences in life after Hurricane Katrina. Directed by Spike Lee, the show is hosted by Soledad O'Brien, co-anchor of CNN's American Morning.

The teens' footage will air monthly as part of the series. The first segment, in which Lee and O'Brien handed cameras to 11 students, aired on Friday, Feb. 9. The series will air regularly until the second anniversary of Katrina in August. Also last month, Nickelodeon debuted a two-hour programming block called "ME:TV," featuring contributions from 10-year-olds. And TLC last week began a six-part documentary series, "My Life as a Child," where children were given cameras to videotape their lives. "As exciting as the internet is, there's still something different and perhaps more glorious about your creation showing up on national television," says Tom Ascheim, executive vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon. The channel's "ME:TV," which airs weekdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Standard Times, includes videos submitted by kids (with parental permission) and a segment called "Web Wallers," where four participants are shown via webcam. Co-host Jordan Carlos has called it "the ultimate mash-up of online and on-air."

Reality TV, of course, has been a huge beneficiary of the public's desire to be on TV, as have older shows such as "America's Funniest Home Videos" and "Candid Camera." But now, students as young as elementary school age might shoot, edit, and star in video that gets them on a program.

For "Children of the Storm," CNN's Soledad O'Brien and director Spike Lee traveled to New Orleans to distribute mini-camcorders to 11 New Orleans-area students, giving them the tools, encouragement, and a venue to share their voices and visions with the world. "Children of the Storm" will show how the storm has affected their lives and their dreams, their thoughts about the city's recovery, and their own future in their devastated hometowns.

"These children deserve a platform to show the world what it's like to grow up in the aftermath of Katrina," O'Brien said. "No one can tell these stories the way our young filmmakers can, and clearly Spike's dedication to telling the stories of these communities fuels this project." Lee handed video cameras to New Orleans-area high school students and told them to capture their lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for the world to see. "Let them know what's happening down here, that everything isn't okey-dokey," said Lee, who directed When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, a four-hour documentary chronicling the Katrina disaster. Lee was recently named as a winner of the annual George Polk Awards for that documentary.