NOSTALGIC childhood memories came flooding back over the weekend as Facebook users changed their profile pictures to their favourite cartoon characters.What seemed like a positive initiative in recognising child abuse now has a question mark hanging over it with the NSPCC denying any involvement.
Let's be honest, most of us googled a cartoon character in excitement as we basked in the thoughts of (indirectly) helping a good cause. From the 4th Dec to the 6th Dec, Facebook rapidly turned into a playground of Bart Simpsons, Angelica's, Thundercats, Bugs Bunny and Spongebob Square Pants. I have to admit, even I was sucked into this self-indulgent trip down memory lane.
The Facebook message prompted it's users to: "Change your FB picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal is
not to see a human face on FB until Monday (Dec 6th) Join the fight against child abuse & copy and paste to your status!"
Facebook saw a typically predictable domino impact with users following what their 'sane' friends were morphing into...cartoons. But somehow I think some users found themselves more engrossed with selecting appropriate childhood characters rather than actively donating or reading up about child abuse.
Some people resisted and sarcastically posted status updates such as: "I am now going to support the NSPCC by putting a cartoon on my picture profile. Not donate money to them or do some voluntary work for them - I'm going to help them by PUTTING A CARTOON ON MY FACEBOOK PROFILE."
The NSPCC posted the following statement on its Twitter page: "Although the NSPCC did not originate the childhood cartoon Facebook campaign, we welcome the attention it has brought to the work we do." It could be a very clever PR trick or some simple idea from one person; whoever it was, it's put Facebook and the powerful impact social networking sites have back on the map again…not that they ever left. No-one has stepped forward yet claiming the idea as their own so the mystery is still hanging over this recent cyber revolution.
On a more sinister side, Facebook users rapidly started changing their profile pictures back to their own human faces as rumours about pedophiles starting the 'initiative' circulated. Even though Facebook users have to be above the age of 13, it's easy enough to create a fake date of birth. Out in the vast world wide web, anything is possible; although it's a horrible, horrific thought, it's a possibility that these rumours could be true? In some ways, yes, it's easier to tell the age of a user by the 80's or 90's cartoon character but then again a 25 year old can also be a fan of and have their picture set to a 90's cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants. So in this sense, yes, the campaign has raised awareness and made Facebook users spare a moments thought about the vulnerability of children.
Amongst the 1000's of cartoon profile picture, it has hopefully acted as a wake-up call and created more awareness about child abuse and the dismal truth behind innocent faces. It just goes to show how powerful Facebook is in raising awareness about an issue on a global scale and the domino impact it has with its users, then it becoming a newsworthy topic attracting even more attention to the cause...which in this case can't be a bad thing if we're protecting youngsters. It also proves how sheep-like we are with following trends without really questioning its intentions, where it stemmed from and it's impact.
So which will DIRECTLY feel better? Changing your profile picture or visiting http://www.nspcc.org.uk/ and following the instructions?
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