I love blogging, but I also enjoy tweeting and facebooking. Occasionally there are trends, especially on Facebook, where everyone who supports a certain cause is encouraged to copy and post a particular status, or to change the colour of their profile picture, or something of that ilk.
Today, I have to say that I was more than a little irritated to note that the latest trend was encouraging people to change their pictures to cartoon characters to support the NSPCC's campaign against violence towards children.
Quite apart from the fact that I don't know anyone who is in favour of violence towards children, so the changing of the profile pictures seems a little pointless, the NSPCC has a policy of referring pregnant teenagers to the Brook Clinic for abortions.
But they're against violence towards children?
12 comments:
I love this blog post. Well done for pointing out the strange absence of logic in this 'trend'. The cartoon characters is meant to make us all feel good, and that just by changing our profile pic that we will prevent violence to children. But that will hardly be the case, if it results in more cash and positive publicity given to an agency that has a death wish for the tiniest of children.
Brilliant - Thank you, thank you!
Excellent post. Thank you.
Just another of the world's hypocracies...
A Norwegian Onion-like satirical web magazine published a post yesterday about a kid who was about to be beaten but was saved by someone suddenly changing their profile picture to Elmer Fudd.
Thank you for this, Mac. I'm not the most regular user of Facebook, and, although I noticed last night that one or two of my Facebook friends had changed their profile pictures to cartoon characters, I was summoned to cook supper before I got to the bottom of why.
It is an ongoing source of mystery to me that a charity can generate millions in donations by declaring an intention to "end" violence to children, whilst at the same time promoting the worst kind of violence to the youngest and most vulnerable of them.
If you actually read the Hoax-slayer article at the site Bob Brookes linked to, you will see that it is saying the opposite of what Bob implies: that the claim about paedophiles is quite false.
Please don't re-post scare stories without checking - and at least reading to the third line of the story which said it was a hoax!
PS Meant to say that I agree with you Mac: it's a shame there are hardly any trustworthy charities...
Ben T - thanks for your clarification. I allowed the comment through on my iPhone, so hadn't checked the link myself (intending to do so when I got home.)
Finding that you are correct, I have removed it...
According to the NSPCC's own Facebook page: "NSPCC did not originate the childhood cartoon Facebook campaign".
The meme was circulating in French over a month ago (without reference to violence against children) under the form: "Merci de jouer le jeu: Du 10 au 15 novembre, changez votre photo de profil Facebook par un héros de dessin animé de vos années d'enfance." In English this later became the first weekend in December. Some enterprising meme-merchant seems to have added the bit about the NSPCC as a way of guilt-tripping people into playing along.
BTW my slightly tetchy comments were directed at Bob, not you Mac; I realised that was a bit ambiguous...
Not a problem, Ben. I was more than a little tetchy myself - I don't like finding that I have put up incorrect information, or allowed others to do so on my blog...
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