Balloon Boy's Parents- is this abuse?

What should we call parents who use their children as objects to seek their own personal gain? The entire ordeal was staged to create publicity for his parents' desire to be on reality TV again.
Six-year-old Falcon Heene was told to hide for hours in the rafters of the garage while the country worried about his safety. Falcon and his siblings were told to collude with his parents' abuse of the nation's desire to drop everything and focus on the safety of one little boy. They put him on TV many times the day of the hoax and while on the Today Show, which was the middle of the night for this little by, he threw up. For me this qualifies as abuse. Associated News writes about the saga. What do you think?