Facebook Cartoon Profile Pic to Fight Child Abuse December 6 - WTF???

Okay I have to comment on this because it's driving me mental. Just as I can't understand the double standards and complete confusion of the dating world - I understand even LESS the idiocy behind some social media "meme"s and what we do on the online world to really demonstrate how overly accepting and unquestioning we are about advice, networks and supporting generalisations and ideals without thinking for ourselves.

Change your Facebook Profile Pic to a Cartoon to Fight Child Abuse

Last weekend, I received a message from a dear friend on Facebook:

The challenge? Change your FB profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal? To not see a human face on FB until Monday, December 6th. Join the fight against child abuse and copy and paste to your status to invite your friends to do the same.

Now while I loved this dear friend dearly, I always believed she was of the more "gullible" sort - well meaning, but well gullible. I certainly didn't think her post and status would be the first of many an internet phenomenon.

Before I knew it, within 24 hours, my entire facebook feed was overtaken by status update and cartoon characters proclaiming I should change my profile picture for the goal to "not see a human face" to fight child abuse.

Many authorative (by authorative, I mean awesome blogs like mashable) reported on the trend, but were unable to trace the source of the campaign to any particular NGO or special interest group. Some say that it was a game that had originated in Greece.

What I say is - HUH???

Maybe I have too much faith in my network and friends but I thought everyone would see through the idiocy of such a declaration - I mean I LIKE seeing my facebook feed taken over wiht awesome cartoon characters - but I have so far received NO RESPONSE from any one as to the nature of this campaign, namely:

What sort of child abuse are we fighting? Is it...

• is it the cases where teens sue their parents for slapping them in the faces or for not signing permission slips?
• or is it the baby girls in china that are drowned or sold off because they're female?
• or is it child abductors who are known to use toys and cartoons to lure kids in?

Seriously, folks, I would like to ask that we try this again - let's get this right and create a real cause and a real page with real statistics on child abuse for someone to think about and decide how they want to make a difference? Or if the whole point was just to get a lot of awesome cartoon characters on FB (which I would like to think is why so many people joined the cause) let's call a spade a spade and have National Cartoon Week where everyone can post as their profile picture a cartoon from their early childhood. Let's just please not hide behind some seemingly blanket good cause and belittle the seriousness of violence against children - and look to raise awareness in a proper and real way.