Jennifer Garner and her 3-year-old daughter Violet Affleck must be two of the most photographed people in Hollywood. I’d bet that after Brangelina’s crew and Suri Cruise, Violet must be the most photographed celebrity kid. She always looks adorable and Jen is often seen taking her on fun outings. But we forget when we’re looking at these idyllic pictures that there are loud, screaming people behind them. Paparazzi yelling, harassing, flashing a thousand bright bulbs on them. Jennifer signed on for all this – something she readily admits. But Violet didn’t. She lives in a fishbowl, and Jen thinks there needs to be more laws protecting celebrity children.

They are waiting — cameras and camcorders in their hands — every morning in front of the kindergarten gates. Some days, there are enough of them to block easy access to the school. They can be aggressive and frightening to a young child. And in the evening, when parents return to pick the youngsters up, they are back in full force again.

Little wonder that Jennifer Garner finds herself tensing up whenever she takes her three-year-old daughter to preschool. Little wonder that she experiences mounting frustration and rage over the failure of the system to protect the children of celebrities from the harassment of the paparazzi.

“Now, it’s worse because of the entire world of tabloid journalism,” she says bluntly. “Now, there are almost as many video cameras as there are film cameras and the situation has shifted so that a huge amount of their focus is put on the children of celebrities.” Which is why getting daughter Violet Anne to school each morning has turned into a nightmare for Garner and husband Ben Affleck.

“To call it a ‘problem’ is the hugest understatement in the world,” she says passionately. “There are no laws protecting children. They have no right to privacy. Because my husband and I are public figures, it is assumed that our daughters are public figures, and there’s nothing to protect them.”

… It’s that fierce love for her children that has sparked her outburst against the paparazzi this morning. “There are cars chasing us outside our home day and night — through red lights. There is absolutely nothing — nothing, nothing — on the side of care.” But preschool is the biggest ordeal. “When we go to preschool, there are so many paparazzi there that they are knocking kids on the heads with cameras and knocking them down.”

She recalls one day when an elderly woman was knocked to the ground. “They’re there every single day, when I drop Violet Anne off and pick her up outside the gates. There are huge numbers of them — and they’re aggressive. They talk to her. They yell at her. They try to get her attention. They try to get her to react. It is a shame, shame, shame.”

Garner admits there are some protective laws on the books in California, but they are difficult to enforce “unless there’s a police officer with you at all times.” She believes some kind of tough licensing legislation is needed to prevent the paparazzi from “making money off people who don’t want their picture to be taken.” She also suggests that celebrities, simply by reason of being celebrities, often don’t get a sympathetic hearing.

[From Vancouver Sun via Celebrity Baby Blog]

I used to get annoyed when celebrities complained about photographers, but once you actually see videos of the whole scene – not just the final cute photo of someone famous – it’s hard not to feel badly for them. Yes they have privileged lives, but I cannot imagine being able to cope with that level of intrusion. Paparazzi often get right up in people’s faces – I would be swatting cameras right and left. I can only imagine what I’d do if I had kids. And no matter what, the children of celebrities don’t deserve to be harassed, or even interrupted in slight ways. Their parent(s) chose a certain career and the resulting lifestyle. The kids had no say in it. And it’s just an unfair way to have a childhood. I think back on all the things I was scared of when I was little – and they were all baseless fears. Imagine how frightening it would be to have these goons yelling at you, hovering over you en masse when you’re a small, possibly timid child.

Here’s a link to video of a then-pregnant Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck picking up Violet from preschool in December and here is Garner alone with Violet outside her school in February. It really seems barbaric for them to go through all that.

Here are Jennifer, Violet, and Seraphina on their way to the park in Boston yesterday. She really does deal with it all graciously. Seraphina is also shown with her nanny earlier that morning. Images thanks to Fame Pictures .