For a week, Facebook users worldwide have been adopting cartoon characters as their profile image — and for good reason.
The ‘Campaign to End Violence Against Children- Childhood Cartoon Faces,’ is a week long nonprofit campaign whose aim is to raise worldwide awareness about child abuse. The goal is simple: not to see a human face until today.
“There should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories to raise awareness to end Violence Against Children,” the campaign’s Facebook page reads.
Although the origins of the campaign remain unknown, it seems to have had quite an effect on campus.
Many students participated in the event or, like Hunter Christenson, junior in LAS, expressed support.
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“Had I known about it earlier, I probably would have participated. I think it’s important because children usually aren’t the ones who come out about being abused, so having us come out about it shows them that it’s okay,” he said.
However, a great majority expressed concern for the practicality of the campaign.
“In theory, I guess it makes sense because it triggers our childhood memories. But as far as doing anything? It’s not very helpful,” said Becky Davies, junior in AHS.
The campaign was designed to raise awareness via status updates and profile pictures all over Facebook, according to the group’s page.
Tan Su, freshman, in LAS predicts it will not have a very lasting effect.
“There’s too much activity on Facebook. Not everyone will notice a default change; it is easy to forget,” he said.
Other students felt that the campaign put a grave issue out of context and posed itself in a way where it couldn’t be taken seriously.
Students, like Brian Slininger, junior in LAS, said he participated only for fun.
Elia Ayala, junior in ACES, expressed concern for the credibility of the campaign.
“What are the campaign’s goals? What started it?” Ayala asked.
“I understand it creates awareness, but I don’t understand what it does to prevent child abuse from happening,” she said.
In actuality, the campaign was meant to also inspire people to donate money to the cause. However, that part of their intent seems to have gotten lost amid the Facebook profile picture craze.
Ayala said she blames it on the cartoon characters.
“Making it about cartoons makes light of an issue that’s very serious, and some people were actually really offended by that,” she said.
