Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood to support the campaign against violence on children

If you logged into Facebook recently you will surely notice a surge of profile pictures featuring cartoon characters.

I tried my best to trace the originator of the campaign, but the earliest information that I found so far was a blog post on momento24. Apparently, the following is the original text of the campaign:

November 22 to November 29, change your profile picture on Facebook, for a cartoon of your childhood. Why is this? To see only cartoons until Monday on Facebook, to create an invasion of memories of a well spent childhood to join the fight against child violence

So, why are people still changing thier profile photos? On my friends pages, the following message is posted:

Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhoodand invite your friends to do the same. Until monday there should be nohuman faces on facebook, but an invasion of memories! This is for campaign against violence on children.

Note that it only says “Monday” without indicating the exact date. Will people be changing their profile photos next Monday? Who knows. Knowing Filpinos, it would surely take some time before the Facebook “cartoon fever” wears off. Sure, it may be a little cumbersome to identify / find your now-cartoonized friends on the famous social networking site, but once you get the hang of it, it can be quite fun to see who your friends chose as their cartoon character.

Will changing your Facebook profile to a cartoon character put an end to violence against children? We can only hope. Looking at my Facebook page full of cartoon characters, one thing is for sure: it is a huge success. Whoever thought of doing it must be smiling by now. At the very least, things like these promote awareness. It is one small step towards a better, brighter tomorrow.

For my profile photo I chose Mamoru Chiba from the Japanese anime Sailor Moon. He is the better half of Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon) and the reincarnation of Prince Endymion. He later becomes King Endymion and is the father of Chibiusa. When trouble arises he can turn into the rose-throwing Tuxedo Mask, often to save Sailor Moon from trouble.

He is later reborn as the Moonlight Knight where he weilds a sword and throws white roses. I used to go by the pen name “Knight of the Moonlight” when I wrote poetry and letters to girls back in high school. It is so nice to be able to revive him again.

What do you think of the Facebook profile picture campaign? What cartoon character did you change yours to?