Pink and husband, Carey Hart with their daughter Willow.
Singer Pink has hit out at paparazzi who take photos of children, as she releases photos of her newborn daughter for charity.
In a statement on her website, Pink wrote,
"If you take or publish her picture, it is against our wishes."
"Due to the unsettling, surprisingly aggressive and unsafe measures that the paparazzi seem to be willing to go to in order to secure that "first shot" of our daughter-stalking us, chasing us in cars and sitting outside of our home all day and all night, as new parents Carey and I decided that we would release personal photos of our Willow, and donate all of the money to charity."
Pink and husband Carey Hart will be donating the money to their favourite children's' charities, including Ronald McDonald House and Autism Speaks. The photos have been published in People magazine and its Australian sister site, WHO.
The statement continues, "Like any parents, we believe our little girl deserves the right to have privacy and be protected, but unfortunately, this media climate doesn't seem to provide for that... it's one thing to harass and stalk us, the adults, the celebrity that signed up for this life, but children should be protected and safe. There should be a clear distinction between us."
"In every other country that I recall, children's faces are blurred out in magazine photos. Why is USA the only country that continues to financially incentivize intrusive paparazzi behavior to capitalize on photos of babies, infants and children? Why is this acceptable to any of us? Why is this even legal? These are questions I ask myself as a new parent. Why are celebrities/public figures having to seek restraining orders to keep strange grown men with still and video cameras from sitting perched outside of their children's pre-schools and elementary schools, preying on little innocent kids? After all, if a stranger was sitting outside of a school taking photographs of random little girls and boys, wouldn't he be arrested? Or, at least in Philadelphia, he would have to face a more primal sort of recourse. But because it's the child of a celebrity, somehow it's okay? I'm just not sure what is wrong with us as a society, that we do more than tolerate this, but our appetite for it seems insatiable. We buy these pictures. We buy these magazines that publish these paparazzi pictures. WHERE DOES IT STOP?"
"Here's the bottom line: we don't want you to take our little girl's picture. We don't want you to one day follow our little girl home from school. We don't want our little girl's picture in a magazine or on a blog. If you take or publish her picture, it is against our wishes, and without our consent as parents, as people."
The often controversial star seems to be enjoying parenthood, adding that, "we are absolutely blissed out in love over here! To our fans and friends all over the world, thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes throughout this time in our life! Carey is a natural, (I knew he would be) and I finally found out what love really means. Don't worry, I'm not writing an album full of sappy lullabies. Not yet, anyways?"
