The Learning Network Blog: Should the Private Lives of Famous People Be Off Limits?

News broke last last week that paparazzi photographs of Kate Middleton, wife of Britain's Prince William, had been taken while she sunbathed topless at a private villa in France. The photos, which appeared in tabloids in France, Ireland and Italy, appear to have been taken with a long-lens camera. Do you think public figures should expect to be ambushed by photographers, or should they be off-limits when they aren't in public?

In the IHT Rendezvous blog post "Topless Royal Photos Expose Public's Bottomless Fascination," Harvey Morris writes:

LONDON — The European media were all aflutter on Friday as a French magazine published topless photos of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, wife of Britain's Prince William and the future Queen of England.
… But in this case the duchess looks like a totally innocent victim, having been snapped by a paparazzo with a long-range lens while tanning during a private stay at a relative's remote French château last week.
The royal couple, presently on a high-profile official tour of Asia, were said by palace officials to be angered and saddened by Closer magazine's decision to publish the pictures, which officials said crossed a red line. The royals were also said to be consulting their French lawyers.
The latest flap underlined yet again a seemingly bottomless fascination with the British royals, not only at home but among Britain's republican neighbors.
… It also revived privacy issues that were supposed to have been resolved in the wake of the death of Princess Diana, the prince's mother, who was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi.

Students: Give us your take on the paparazzi controversy. Who is at fault here: the tabloid owners for publishing the photos, the photographers for taking them, the public for being so interested in the private lives of celebrities–or someone or something else? Is losing privacy a fair trade-off for fame? Do you think Kate Middleton is–or should be–in the same category as public figures who work in the entertainment industry? If you believe that famous people should be "off limits" in their private lives, what do you think needs to change in order for that to happen?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. Please use only your first name. For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that include a last name.

Teachers: We ask a new Student Opinion question each weekday, and leave most open to comment indefinitely. Here is a list of the 163 questions we asked during the 2011-12 school year.