【明報專訊】Some have recently launched a campaign against violence against children on Facebook. Users have posted a message saying, "Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. By Monday there should be no human faces on Facebook but an invasion of memories. This is in support of Stop Violence Against Children- UNICEF." The campaign has received support from over 90,000 Facebook users in the world.
It has however aroused much controversy. It has been pointed out that such a campaign may help paedophiles (戀童癖者) to identify Facebook users that are children. Though the message mentions "UNICEF", there is no evidence UNICEF has started it. None has claimed responsibility for initiating it. Furthermore, the campaign encourages users to replace their profile pictures with cartoon characters from their childhood. Users' ages can therefore be easily be guessed at. For example, one may be quite sure a user who uses Spongebob (1990s) rather than Betty Boop (1930s) for his profile picture is a child.
However, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) of the UK supports it. Its spokesperson has pointed out the campaign has directed attention to issues of child abuse.
■Keywords
campaign 運動
childhood 兒童期
side-effect 副作用
■Further readings
1. CNN. "Facebookers changing profile pics to cartoon characters", 2010.12.06
2. NSPCC: www.nspcc.org.uk
■Questions
1. What is the campaign mentioned in the above paragraphs aimed at?
2. For what has it been criticised?
3. To what extent do you think it helps prevent child abuse?
