State labor officials have cited the entertainment website that has been chronicling the life of octuplets mother Nadya Suleman and her children, officials told The Times.
RadarOnline was cited for failure to obtain an entertainment permit, failure to have an entertainment permit on file, failure to have a studio teacher on site and allowing the babies to be available for filming beyond the hours allowed.
The accusations involve one day of filming -- March 17 -- when the first two of Suleman's eight babies were brought home from the hospital to a media frenzy.
Officials said the investigation was ongoing. The four citations involve six violations and carry a $3,000 fine, said Dean Fryer, spokesman for the state Office of the Labor Commissioner.
Officials at RadarOnline could not be reached for comment. Calls to Suleman's attorney were not immediately returned.
After the octuplets were born in January, the fledgling gossip site quickly established itself as the go-to source for Octomom gossip. Suleman signed an exclusive agreement that allowed the website's camera crews access to her home and children. Now the site has found itself in hot water.
Suleman, a single mother, catapulted onto the public stage after giving birth Jan. 26 to the octuplets, only the second set to be born in the U.S. She immediately became a focal point for populist rage after it was learned that she was jobless, unmarried, on welfare and already had six children. All 14 of her children were conceived through in vitro fertilization.
Since March, RadarOnline has filmed Suleman and her babies dozens of times, chronicling events such as a trip to Disneyland with her older daughter and the daily challenges she faces running a household with 14 children.
Under the state's labor code, the website should have obtained an entertainment permit for filming any child between 15 days and 18 years old. Fryer said the website did not obtain one for March 17, nor did it have one on file.
In addition, filming of infants is allowed for only 20 minutes a day, between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. and between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m., Fryer said. On March 17, the state says, filming took place late at night as RadarOnline accompanied Suleman from the hospital to her La Habra home. They were chased by a phalanx of paparazzi, and when they arrived home the scene outside resembled a rock concert. Helicopters flew overhead and dozens of photographers from media outlets around the world -- along with hundreds of curious onlookers -- mobbed her cul-de-sac, prompting more than 200 calls to 911, including one from Suleman herself.
