There are times when an individual's private acts should become a public concern.

There are times when an individual's private acts should become a public concern.

12:10-12:46

Since the beginnings of humanity and civilizations, the human mind has always been a perplexing issue. It is human to be curious of other people in society but is variable in context of the situation. The US Constitution gives the right to certain freedoms especially the freedom of expression but it fails to explicitly mention the right to privacy. As a result, the government and 3^rd parties don’t have the right to trample on people’s private lives.  In most cases, private life is off limits to the public but in some cases an individual’s private life can be of public concern in time of suspicion or interest.

Consider a situation in which an individual’s private life can be of public concern. For example, an individual is deemed harmful to society may have their rights to privacy revoked. This is especially true to many politicians and common citizens who have committed heinous crimes. In today’s society with increasing technological mobility and access to the internet has severely limited the privacy of some people. More people are being victimized through the internet than from any other method. A frequently occurring crime that has been occurring in today’ s society is that in sexual harassment and stalking. In many states throughout the United States, there have been countless adults who have been accused and convicted as sex offender. Consider, the situation of a high school teacher in Mars Hill, Maine who was convicted of allegedly and unlawfully touching a minor without prior consent. Alan J. Brown, a former teacher was convicted of sexually touching a student and possessing child pornography of students on his computer. The court decided to convict Brown as a sex offender and severely restricted to be in contact with minors under the age of 21 and without a parent’s approval of the child. Also, Brown was listed as a sex offender on a state sex offender registry. Therefore, this incident delineates the importance of the public being informed of a private act because it helps protect other children from being victimized by a similar crime.

On the other hand, consider when an individual’s private life should not be of public concern. Since the roots of the film industry in the 1900s the common citizen has often idealized some actor or popular figure and developed curiosity of them. In modern times, the biggest problem is that of the paparazzi. The paparrazi has been often been put to shame of publicizing private lives of famous figures. For example, during the 2008 SuperBowl, Janet Jackson did a live performance on stage with Justin Timberlake and had a little mishap of clothing falling off her breast. With this incident, many news outlets went viral with publishing videos and articles of this incident. Another example, is the public appearances of Britney Spears on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. She was a complete target by the paparazzi, because they chased her everywhere to get everything documented as pictures and video clips. Often times it is done to find something revealing or shocking about the celebrity to receive more funding or endorsements for their products. These examples, of celebrities public lives are not necessary for the public to acknowledge because it does not affect anyone directly in daily life.

As a result, it is circumstantial for the public to know the private lives of individuals. It is important for common citizens to know the lives of dangerous individuals in society such as sex offenders in order to protect citizens from harm by posting their manes on online sex offender registries. On the other hand, the public lives of celebrities are not necessary for the common ctizen because it does not impact everyone on a daily basis.