Curate, connect, and discover
It would be an interesting challenge to write a narrative of some kind where the adults are selfish assholes to the kids in the show, but nothing the adults do is illegal, nor is it socially or culturally inappropriate or bad. It's horrible, but all plausibly deniable.
The poor kids just have to bear it, maybe the focus is their coping mechanisms or something, like Bridge to Terabithia or something.