14 DAY TRIAL // A change is coming: following various complaints from some of the biggest stars in showbiz, including Halle Berry, Jennifer Garner and Kristen Bell, about the use of paparazzi photos of their kids in the print and online media, People magazine has become the first trade publication to officially ban such pics.
Celebrity blog Just Jared, one of the biggest of its kind, has also joined the initiative, dubbed the #NoKidsPolicy.
The decision comes after months of pleading from celebrities, who have been complaining that the paparazzi hound them and their families in order to snap photos of their children doing mundane things like playing outside or grabbing ice cream.
The issue is that the children of celebrities, unlike the parents, never made a choice to be exposed to all this kind of media attention. In snapping their photo, the paparazzi are basically violating their privacy because, these stars argued, their children are regular citizens, they’re not famous.
It seems that their passionate words eventually reached the right ears, because People Editorial Director Jess Cagle has decided that the mag will no longer run these photos, with only some exceptions.
“Of course, we still run a lot of sanctioned photos – like exclusive baby pictures taken with the cooperation of celebrity parents, and photos of stars posing with their kids at events (like a red carpet) where they’re expecting and willing to be photographed. But we have no interest in running kids’ photos taken under duress,” Cagle explains.
“Of course, there may be rare exceptions based on the newsworthiness of photos. And there’s always the tough balancing act we face when dealing with stars who exploit their children one day, and complain about loss of privacy the next,” Cagle adds.
That last part is probably in direct reference to some stars who are known to have contracts with the paparazzi, contracts that include shots of family outings with their children. One such example is believed to be that of Jennifer Garner, who, over the years, has built a reputation and image for herself as a “celebrity mom” presumably by calling the paps herself.
If that was ever the case, her pleading for a law to prevent the paparazzi from selling photos of celebrity kids would make her a hypocrite.
On the topic of this big initiative, Just Jared founder tells the Los Angeles Times that the same exceptions will also apply where his site is concerned. He will also run photos of celebrity kids taken from their parents’ social media accounts.