Paparazzi Should Not Use Their First Amendment Rights

The paparazzi should not use their first amendment rights to justify targeting the children of celebrities. There has to be a line where the right to privacy isn’t overtaken by the freedom of the press. With an expanding market for pictures of celebrities’ children, the paparazzi have grown cruel, forceful, and dangerous, doing whatever is necessary to get the photographs. With the growth of technology and social media, these children are prime targets every day, which makes them open to ridicule, bullying, and harassment wherever they go. In 2013, court proceedings began for a new anti-paparazzi law, stating that no child is allowed to be harassed because of their parent’s profession. However, the anti-paparazzi law which was successfully

“Opponents in media contend these laws are unconstitutionally broad, and they promise to fight them in court once someone is arrested and charged. Their fear is that legitimate news-gatherers will be swept up by the law,” said Gregg Leslie, legal defense director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (Puente, 2014). Though, legitimate news-gatherers would not have a problem getting parental consent before publishing pictures of celebrities’ children.

In other words if the paparazzi comes across a celebrity and their child outside, the paparazzi feel they can take as many pictures as they want. As long as these celebrity families are in public, anyone has the right to take a picture. The paparazzi have a job to do too. Even though it is hard to imagine, some of these abusive paparazzi have children of their own that they need to take care

It is understandable how upset these celebrities could be, when their children are being yelled at and provoked for a photograph opportunity by the paparazzi. According to Samantha Schaefer of the Los Angeles times, in 2013, when Jennifer Garner testified in Sacramento, she said that just because she is a celebrity it does not mean that her children are. The paparazzi camp out where they know celebrity’s children will be. The paparazzi sit outside of the children’s schools, homes and extracurricular activities, taunting the children in order to get some kind of reaction for a photo opportunity. The children are being yelled and screamed at by the photographers. Schaefer also stated that Halle Berry’s child is afraid to go to her own school (Schaefer, 2013). Without doubt the celebrity parents are fighting for their children’s right to privacy. Halle’s daughter cannot even concentrate on her education, with all the yelling and flashing cameras when she is at