Several Media Outlets Amazingly Boycott Paparazzi Photos Of Celebrity Kids

2013 CMT Music Awards - Wonderwall Portrait StudioOn Friday, ET became the first media outlet to boycott photos of celebrity kids. Now, People and Just Jared are following suit. This is amazing – and also one of those things that is so obvious I wonder why it took so long.

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard introduced the idea of putting a halt to media organizations publishing photos of celebrity children without their consent. They’ve been campaigning hard to make it happen – and as evidenced by the actions of ET, People and Just Jared – it’s working. In January, Bell and Shepard asked their fans to stop reading publications that use paparazzi photos of celebrity children. From Jezebel:

The couple has targeted People magazine specifically as a publication that could and should put this ban on “unauthorized” photos into effect. On Twitter, Bell said the couple has gone after People because “they’re better than their trashy weekly counterparts. they are a quality ent mag,” shewrote. “They often print REAL stories abt REAL ppl who actually deserve to be news. But they need a nudge in the right direction.” Bell also spoke withBuzzFeed about the issuecriticizedRadar Online for publishing photos of Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s kids on the way to his funeral and railed against the E! network and other media outlets.

The couple has said they won’t do interviews with publications that don’t abide by their wishes. It’s a great idea – if celebrities begin refusing to give stories to these outlets, more may follow.

This is a mom site – of course we cover celebrity news. I have often wondered how famous parents deal with having people snap photos of their kids all day long. Frankly, I don’t understand how celebrities deal with having a camera shoved in their face all day, period – but thinking about what it would be like to have one pointed at my kids has always made me uncomfortable.

We live in a culture that consumes celebrity news. I admit I love seeing pictures of the offspring of celebrities and I’ve become so used to paparazzi images that I often ignore that the way the photos were captured. In reality, most of these images are probably really invasive and awful. It’s one thing to pose for a photo shoot or volunteer information about your family – quite another to have someone following you around, sneaking photos at every possible moment.

Good for Shepard and Bell for taking action – and for outlets that rely on paparazzi photos for a lot of their content to agree to stop using those types of photos of children. I admit I never thought about how easy it would be to not use those images. Honestly I’m not sure if I’ve ever even used them – but now that I realize it I won’t be pulling those photos for stories either.

(photo: Getty Images)

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