The Daily IIJ

If you open your Facebook account and start seeing thumbnail photos of cartoon characters from Disney or anime on your friends’ profile pictures instead of their actual portraits, do not fret; it’s the latest Internet meme that has swept the popular social networking site to heighten awareness on violence against children.
Facebook users in the Philippines started changing their profile pictures this week, after a status message began circulating regarding the awareness campaign. According to the status message, Facebook users should have their cartoon profile pictures until December 6.
“By Monday (Dec. 6) you can’t see a single human face on Facebook but an invasion of childhood memories for the fight against child abuse,” read the status message.
It is unclear when the campaign actually began and who initiated it. But according to a post on the website momento24.com (http://momento24.com/en/2010/11/27/campaign-against-child-violence-launched-throught-facebook/), the campaign began as early as November 22 and ended a week later.
“It is clear that the situation violence against children and child labor will not be reversed by putting cartoon pictures on Facebook, is a way of promoting social awareness to take further actions to change the situation,” read the post.

It is also unclear whether the time period for the said awareness campaign has any significance on the plight of abused children. The United Nations does not mark December 6 or November 22 as a day of observance on violence against children. The closest dates the UN commemorates a day related to children or human rights in general are on November 20 (Universal Children’s Day) and December 10 (Human Rights Day). (See: http://www.un.org/observances/days.shtml)

Child abuse is a rampant problem in the Philippines. According to a 2009 data culled by the country’s Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), a total of 6, 522 children (aged 0 to 17) have been reported as abused.

The highest number of child abuse cases come from Region IX or the Zamboanga Peninsula with 1, 485 reported cases, followed by Region VII (867), the National Capital Region (663) and Region III (660). The DSWD classified the abuse on children as victims of abandonment, neglect, rape, acts of lasciviousness, prostitution, pedophilia, pornography, cyber pornography, maltreatment, child labor, illegal recruitment, child trafficking and armed conflict.

Of the reported cases, most abuses happened to children aged 14 and below (1,862), with mostly girls as victims (1,491). Sexual abuse remains as the top reported case in this age group.[See full data:http://www.dswd.gov.ph/phocadownload/number%20of%20clients%20served%20by%20dswd%20as%20of%20feb%2017%202010%20child%20abuse.pdf]

Several Facebook outside the Philippines have lauded the Filipinos’ efforts to end child abuse through the social networking site.

“This is really touching,and encouraging ,a warming feelings to know that in a simple way you can extend help for others, ” said Facebook user, Kendi.

“It’s nice to see that many Filipinos are helping one another in promoting social awareness in violence issues that need to be addressed,” another Facebook user said.

This is not the first time such a Facebook meme caught the fancy of Filipino users. In January this year, Facebook users, predominantly women, began posting the color of their brassiere on their status message as part of a global campaign for breast cancer awareness. The campaign was made despite the fact that breast cancer awareness month falls on October.

Filipino-initiated memes also came out in August 2009, when Facebook users began donning yellow ribbons or “twibbons” on their profile pictures to condole with the family of former President Corazon Aquino. Aquino, who used the color yellow during her political campaign in the 1980s, died on August 1 of colon cancer. In November last year, journalists also put black twibbons as their profile pictures to call for justice for the 32 members of the media who were brutally massacred in Maguindanao, purportedly by the powerful Ampatuan clan.

A meme is a concept or idea that spreads through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Internet memes are seen as cost-effective advertising or PR tools to push for buzz around a certain product or concept. The 2006 film, “Snakes on a Plane” generated positive buzz through this form of advertising.?