Change your facebook profile picture to your favourite cartoon character

A couple of days ago some of my friends on Facebook had this as their status: "Change your Facebook profile picture to your favourite cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday December 6 there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is to support no violence towards children." Yesterday, it had changed to "Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same, for the NSPCC. Until Monday (December 6th), there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is a campaign to stop violence against children." The NSPCC Facebook page says "A warm welcome to all our cartoon friends! We are incredibly grateful for your support to end cruelty to children in the UK. Although the NSPCC did not originate the childhood cartoon Facebook campaign, we welcome the attention it has brought to the work we do. If you would like to find out more about how you can get involved, please visit our website."

I haven't changed my Facebook picture to my favourite cartoon character. This isn't because I don't support the work of the NSPCC or the other organisations working to reduce the incidence of cruelty to children. It isn't because I'm a heartless git who is happy for children to suffer. And it isn't because I just can't think of what my favourite cartoon character would be. It's because putting a cartoon picture on Facebook WILL NOT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE.

Never mind that some well-meaning soul decided that this "campaign" was from the NSPCC, though I admire their positive response. This will do nothing to stop people being violent to children. Nobody who regularly beats their children because they themselves were beaten as a child, nobody who sometimes whacks their unruly toddler round the back of the head because they don't have many parenting skills, nobody who is addicted to alcohol or drugs and sometimes doesn't feed their children - and certainly none of the tiny tiny minority who set out deliberately to be cruel to children - will change their behaviour one little bit because there are suddenly pictures of Pikachu and Bagpuss all over Facebook.

If you want to reduce violence to children, give money to the NSPCC. Or get off Facebook and volunteer.