Last week, images of Blake Lively’s children were posted by Daily Mail AU, and the mother-of-three spoke out in their comments section to denounce the use of those images and their exploitative nature. It’s no secret that paparazzi often go to great lengths to obtain images of stars and their families, but when it comes to children there’s a moral line that should not be crossed which Lively pointed out.
Although the publication deleted the original images, the Instagram account @commentsbycelebs screenshotted and shared the photo, along with its caption which read “Blake Lively is a hands-on mum as she expertly wrangles ALL THREE daughters while out in NYC,” and showed a smiling Lively with her children. The screenshot also captured Lively’s frustrated response to the photo which read, “You edit together these images together to look like I’m happily waving. But that is deceitful. The real story is: My children were being stalked by a men all day. Jumping out. And then hiding. A stranger on the street got into words with them because it was so upsetting for her to see. When I tried to calmly approach the photographer you hired to take these pictures in order to speak to him he would run away.”
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Lively continued, asking, “Do you do background checks on the photographs you pay to stalk children? Where is your morality here?” She also added, “The photographers who would speak to me, I was able to agree to smile and wave and let them take my picture away from my children if they would leave my kids alone...There are plenty of pictures you could’ve published without the kids. Please delete. C’mon. Get with the times.”
After @commentsbycelebs reposted the screengrab, Lively then commented on their image, thanking the account for sharing the exchange. She wrote, “One simple thing people can do is stop following and block any publications or handles who publish kid’s pictures. Feel free to report them. Or send a dm sharing why you don’t follow them. But it’s a simple way of only aligning with publications who have morality.”
Lively then pointed out that publications often post images that their audiences respond well to, so in stopping engaging with sources that post images of children, they will cease to disseminate those images. “If that audience makes it clear they don’t want something —like photos of children obtained by men frightening and stalking them— the publication or account will do what the audience wants. It’s the only way that so many have already stopped. Because the people demanded it. So thank you to everyone who’s made that difference already.”
