Prince Harry nude photos: A reminder we're all in the public eye

Prince Harry nude photos provide a teachable moment: What happens in Vegas, or in front of a cell phone camera, can stay in the public eye.

|
Felipe Dana/AP
Prince Harry is the subject of nude photos that recently surfaced online: reminding adults and kids, alike, that what happens in Vegas – especially in front of a cell phone camera – can stay in the public eye.

Ah, Prince Harry.  Providing yet another teachable moment for partygoing teens and 20-somethings everywhere.

In case you have not seen this news yet, the royal goods are making their way around the Internet today after a partygoer leaked photos from a recent, um, gathering in the Prince of Wales’s VIP hotel suite in Las Vegas. The shots show a naked Prince Harry cavorting with an equally disrobed young woman. Celebrity news reports say that the prince’s gang met a group of women at the casino bar and invited them all up for a game of strip pool.

Lesson 1: Strip billiards with strangers, not a great idea.

Lesson 2: Strip billiards with strangers with cameras or smart phones, even worse idea.

This is hardly the first time that Harry has been caught in the public eye doing something the rest of us might find embarrassing. (Remember that Nazi Halloween costume?) It’s also far from the first time a celebrity has suffered at the hands of uncontrolled party photos. (Think Miley Cyrus and Michael Phelps with their respective bongs.) 

But every time these celebrity flaps happen, it should make all the rest of us remember that these days, with Facebook and cell phone cameras and texting, what happens in Vegas is just not going to stay there.

Which can be both a helpful and hurtful awareness for kids.

On the positive side, a recognition of the speed by which incriminating photos travel can help teens make smarter decisions about behaviors like “sexting,” the sending of sexual images via text message. While a recent study published in the journal “Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine” found that nearly 30 percent of high school students have sent sexual messages, that number is well below the 50 percent who report having received a request for a nude photo.

But the constant sense of being in the public eye can also do a number on body image and sense of self. Last year, a study found that teens who use Facebook regularly report more depression than those who don’t; other studies have found that Facebook devotees reveal more narcissistic characteristics than others. Some child development experts worry about the impact on teens – particularly girls – who feel that they need to be “camera ready” at every event, knowing that someone might post their photo online.

Prince Harry, however, seems not to worry much about being “camera ready.” Or perhaps is just satisfied with a different sort of profile than you might want for your kid. 

Indeed, most news reports about the Vegas episode say that Brits have reacted with a national shrug. This is their party prince, after all.  It’s what he does. 

The palace has had no comment.

Lesson 3:  If you’re going to have naked pictures of you spread all over the place, you might as well be a beloved royal.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Prince Harry nude photos: A reminder we're all in the public eye
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2012/0822/Prince-Harry-nude-photos-A-reminder-we-re-all-in-the-public-eye
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe