No.
There isn’t an article on ABC on Internet fraud, about how pedophiles began the meme about changing profile pictures to cartoon characters as a stand against child abuse, just so they could more easily convince children to accept their friend requests.
1. Search for it yourself. There’s no article. http://www.abc.com If the status you read contains a link (or a partial) it was probably to a story the person didn’t even bother to read, about the Facebook cartoon picture trend itself as it relates to child abuse awareness.
2. Kids generally aren’t even allowed to have Facebook accounts.
3a. Thanks for looking it up first, before indiscriminately pasting nonsense to your status like some grandpa who forwards you political “media won’t report this” forwards all day without checking Snopes, but then tells you that he actually meant to spread all that propagandist literature just as a way to connect to you on some obscure, unknowingly Pyrrhic-victory level.
3b. Shame on you for already cutting and pasting that message as your status, in a frenzy fueled by your unhindered devotion to the anti-pedophile cause, that will prompt you to lie to everyone you know about stuff you haven’t even bothered to look up yet as long as it uncovers secret plans by those crafty, terrible, pedophiles even if they don’t actually have any secret plans and you’re just really easy to fool. By the way, you’re also not the 10,000,00th visitor. Perhaps to save time, it might also help to know that Microsoft and AOL aren’t actually sending people money who forward messages. Seriously. Look stuff up first. I mean it.
the ablestmage press 
Very well written. I agree with this.
when i hear pedophiles on the news are having people put cartoon charcters as their profile pics for pedophiles to add children,reguardless that brings up red flags our address and phone numbers are listed on our profiles.i’m not giving a pedophile the opportunity to make that mastake.i’m gonna protect my child to the fulliest!!!!!!!
Why would YOUR having a cartoon picture as your profile pic have anything to do with enabling pedophiles? Makes no sense. And why do you have your address and your phone number in your public profile? That’s just crazy. What opportunity are you denying to these alleged pedophiles?
I agree 100%!!! I got a reply from some one and this was my reply!!! I was just posting what every one else said to post because they have spoken about it on tv from what I have been told. As to whether or not it is true or not I dont know, but I for sure wouldnt take the chance of not posting it and warning… people if that may have been the case.. I have a 10 month old and I would want someone to warn me as well just in case because in all honesty we do have a lot of sicko’s out there that would do some crazy stuff like that. So to be on the safe side, I did what the status said and that is to repost it. I guess we shall see becuase they say it is suppose to be on the news tonight..I as well feel no shame about copying and pasting something that could be a HUGE POSSIBILITY!!!
I hope this comment is a joke.
1. You choose what you put on facebook.
2. It took actual effort to read this because I had to correct the grammar and spelling in order to understand it. Which is what makes me think that it’s someone making fun of people who reposted the hoax in the first place.
Why would your dumb ass have your phone number and address on your profile? Seriously, people like you make me question others sometime.
You’re an idiot. More kids are snatched into vans in 12 seconds, than over months of deep mind fucking over the internet. If you want to keep your kids safe to the “fulliest” why let them have a facebook? or leave the house for that matter. Hey… is that a utility van in your driveway?
Why in the world would you have your address and phone numbers on your profile to begin with! That is just unsafe period!!!
why would you put your address and phone number on your profile? That’s idiotic.
You … you think you’re protecting your child to the fullest by … by actually posting your addresses and phone numbers on your profile?! Wow.
thats just stupid why would you put that stuff up in the first place!!!
Why the hell is your address and phone numbers on Facebook in the first place. That’s ridiculous. I understand you wanting to protect your child and I applaud you for that because many people don’t. I work in Health and Social Services…people don’t care about their kids like they are supposed to. The parent is responsible to know what they are watching, listening, looking up on the internet…and don’t five me this I don’t have time bull shyt because both my parents had 2 jobs while I was growing up and they were always on top of what we were doing, homework, friends, TV….Keep sensitive information off Facebook, make your profile private!!
then you should not put your address and number on facebook to begin with!!!
Blah Blah Blah.. Then don’t friend people you DON’T KNOW and set all of your profile settings to PRIVATE.
We wouldn’t have a problem with pedophiles on facebook targeting kids if parents would stop letting their kids get on it. Children will be children and will make bad decisions. There is a reason why they aren’t allowed to make their own decisions. A reason why we call them minors!
You are a moron for putting up your address!!!!why in the hell would you do that…not only do our so called creepy pedophiles who told us to put up cartoons as my profile picture out there so are crazy murders..they might be after you instead of your kids…duh!!!think about it!!!and kids shouldnt have a damn facebook page either…im pretty sure that when facebook started you had to be 18 to join or have a college accepted email address…maybe we should stick to that idea!!!then we wouldnt have to be worried about pedophiles on facebook because little kids wouldnt be on there…and if your little kid has a facebook youre stupid…what does an 11 year old need a facebook for anyways???
Lol, every 20 minutes somebody responds to this comment with “WHY IS IT ON THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?”
I’m not sure what concerns me more; the fact that you post personal information on a social networking site in the first place, or your illiteracy.
Dang y’all. Although it not generally a good idea to put phone numbers and addresses on FB, but did y’all know you can still find both just by looking in the white pages if she has a landline? Calm down!
So how about you dont put your address and phone number on a website EVERYONE can see, if you were THAT worried about that you wouldnt have had that on their in the first place
Why would you put your phone number and address on facebook?? Thats like saying Hey come kill me
Trolled. Hard. Dolores just nailed all of you ‘tards, way to be.
Delores, this was never on the news, and if it was, it was only telling people that this is a HOAX. It is not true.
Also, the only thing you should be protecting your children from is your horrible spelling and grammatical skills.
dont put your address and phone number on your profile?? thats just COMMON SENSE
why would you put your address and phone number on the internet in the first place??!!??? THAT is the mistake youre making
Facebook….Myspace….nexopia….NO DIFFERENCE
ENOUGH SAID !!!!!!!!
THIS IS TOO ALL THE SLOW PEOPLE WHO BITCHED AT THE WOMAN ABOUT HAVING HER PHONE NUMBER AND ADDRESS ON HER PROFILE!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHEN SIGNING UP FOR FACEBOOK, THEY ASK YOU A LOT OF PERSONAL INFO FOR CREATING YOUR ACCOUNT. WE FILL IT OUT BECAUSE ITS A REQUIRED FIELD AND WE DONT THINK THAT THEY ARE GOING TO POST IT TO EVERYONE TO SEE. AND THE REASON WE DONT CATCH THAT ITS ON OUR PROFILE? BECAUSE ITS ON THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE INFO PART OF OUR PROFILES…
SOME OF YOU WHO BITCHED AT HER PROBABLY NEED TO GO TO YOUR OWN PROFILE, CLICK ON THE INFO TAB, AND SCROLL ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM… YOULL BE SURPRISED TO SEE SOME PERSONAL INFO YOU DIDNT WANT THE WORLD KNOWING… AND PHONE NUMBERS SHOW UP ON YOUR PROFILE WHEN YOU SIGN UP FOR FACEBOOK TEXTS…
SO CHECK YOURSELF OUT, AND STOP JUDGING.
JUST REMEMBER, EVERYONE HATES ASSHOLES, EVEN OTHER ASSHOLES.
BACK OFF
i would have 2 agree with amy. i rather post that it was a scam by pedophile n have it not be true then not 2 post it warning people n have it be true.
To be honest, if you want to protect your child, you should probably give them the opportunity of a proper education. Learn how to spell and use grammar. Also, quit playing super-parent.
Clearly Delores, you are already doing massive damage to your kids. You clearly didn’t read the article, and judging by your lack of punctuation and spelling, I’m guessing several of the words might have been too tough for you.
If you really want to protect your kids, just post your credit card number here and I will enroll you in a massively successful business opportunity out of Nigeria.
LOL.
your children shouldnt be on fb and you should have you phone # and address on a different prinacy setting. if its there for everyone to see then its your fault.
First off, you shouldn’t have your address or phone number. Thats just plain stupidity!
Wow… I can’t believe you all just fed that Troll so well. Now we’ve got a very well fed Troll, and nothing can be more of a pain in the arse than a well fed troll.
Ok really, if you are dumb enough to have put all that privet info on a sight like facebook, your not taken the right steps to protect your kids to start with…smarten up! REALLY!!
That’s just ridiculous. You could protect your child by not letting them have a facebook account to begin with, and if you do, then monitor your child’s usage as well as parental filters. But the whole cartoon picture linking with pedophile activity is also ridiculous; people are becoming more and more frantic and paranoid, instead of calm and observing. Pay more attention to your children instead of pedophile activity because chances are, like the cartoon profile pic thing, it’s not a pedophile act.
Your address and phone number shouldn’t even be up on facebook if you’re so concerned about your children. Way to protect your children to the fullest. 😐
This is funny. Look how many people do not read the posts prior to theirs before responding. Someone should count the number of times the words “shouldn’t post your phone number and address”. I think we get that point!
Why in the world would you post your phone number and address on your FB profile in the 1st place??? Furthermore, WHY would you let your chld have a FB account?? FB is not intended for children. If you want to protect your children practice a bit of parental control and DON”T post your address and phone numbers.
LOL, im genuinely surprised at the number of dumbasses who comment without BOTHERING to LOOK at other comments in a post that talks about people not BOTHERING to LOOK up facts
and surprised to see the number of dumbasses who never heard of a troll before, or too oblivious about it and ended up replying to every single one of them
Regardless of whether or not your profile picture is a cartoon paedophiles and any other kind of wierdo can access your details just as easily
You shouldn’t let your young child have a facebook account anyway. The much publicized sickos with fake accounts thing isn’t the biggest threat to them seeing as this rarely ever happens, the exposure to branding and sexualised materials is a much bigger problem.
You aren’t saving your child by keeping the old photo of yourself as your profile picture, neither are you condemning it by having it as a cartoon. My advice is that you stop believing everything you see on the news.
Don’t you just love stupid people
seriously, make a big fuss over people thinking that someone would do something like that is ridiculous. excuse us for worrying about our children. children CAN have facebook accounts fyi. i know 10 year olds with accounts, facebook is a social network and even 10 year olds are social. Us as parents just worry about the well being of our children especially if they use facebook so SAVE YOUR BITCHING & understand that in the heat of the moment a parent may act off of pure feeling. There are creeps out there & no one should be willing to take any chances. I also don’t have the time to sit and research that crap, its a fricken picture, if taking it off means peace of mind to me then i will take it off. posting the picture on facebook is not going to end child abuse. sorry, but thats something that needs hands on care and posting a picture on a facebook account doesn’t end it. don’t act like everyone who posted that is ignorant and doesn’t read up on what they post, something such as a pedophile throws up those red flags and makes caring parents act right away. learn how to make a point without bashing other people when you don’t know their rhyme or reason for believing that statement.
that comment above is towards the main article written. i do agree that addresses and phone numbers should NOT be allowed on facebook, but that still doesn’t mean that anyone is protected from pedophiles. im not taking chances.
CHILDREN CAN HAVE FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS IF THEY ARE LYING ABOUT THEIR AGE. IF YOU KNOW A 10 YR OLD WHO HAS AN ACCOUNT THEN THEY LIED ABOUT THEIR BIRTH DATE AND THEIR PARENTS SHOULD BE MONITORING THEIR USE OF A COMPUTER.
uhh dumb bitch facebook is for 13 and up if you are too busy to watch your ten year old then dont allow them on the computer and fyi this campaign is for child abuse AWARENESS look the word up if you dont understand, the more people realize that child abuse is real and how bad it is the more likely they are to stop something they see close to home, and if you dont have time to reserch the truth behind a copy/paste then dont bother with it its bull like this that makes it hard for the rest of us RESPONSIBLE PARENTS to know whats really safe for our under 13 kids to see and hear on social sites
i have an idea, why don’t you actually listen to what everyone else has to say about this, instead of being stubborn, insulting, and thinking that protecting your children is an idiotic idea. I am just leaving my teenage childhood, so i know that it’s ridiculous to have to get rid of a childs priviliges when you could get rid of the problem. also a child could easily make a facebook acount a away from their home computer. I believe that the people commenting on this about how everyone who thinks they need to protect their children are bad people, are either teenagers who think adults are taking away their freedom, someone who had a crappy childhood, or is just plain stupid. I mean i do understand the point of this article, telling us that we shouldn’t believe something without actually knowing the facts, but lashing out at the people who worry is just plain idiotic. it’s like telling someone they are an an idiot for being scared of jumping off a 30 foot rock into water, which can be dangerous and obviously it’s a natural feeling to be scared of those hights. So i agree with both sides, but the people on the side of trying to stop the “pedophiles” so far have more of a reason to bash on the other commenting, than the other commenters have on them
Ashley, please tell me how a child having a picture of a cartoon puts them at risk for abuse?
******Even though this is a HOAX, let’s humor it for one moment and believe it’s true.***** The REAL risk would be adults using cartoons as their profile pictures, because the chain letter stated that pedophiles were using the pictures for themselves to get children to accept them.
Pedophiles wouldn’t target someone with a picture of a cartoon since EVERYONE is doing it. The point was that THEY were using the cartoons. And nothing you can do would stop that.
BESIDES, your child is MUCH SAFER having a picture of a cartoon than a picture of their own face.
Again let me state that I know it’s a hoax, but even if it were true, Ashley, your argument makes no sense.
Loki, again, how is putting a picture of a cartoon putting your child at risk?
The point of the chain letter was telling people that PEDOPHILES were using cartoons. THAT WAS THE RISK. NOT your children using the cartoon pictures. The actual risk was children ACCEPTING pedophiles who had used the cartoon picture. Not the other way around.
Protecting your child on facebook IS NOT STUPID, but ignorance sure is.
Protect them by 1. making sure they do not post a picture of their face, 2. tell them not to share personal information, 3. and not to accept friend requests from people they do not know.
Believing a hoax and simply telling your children not to have a picture of a cartoon doesn’t protect them at all.
Ignorance spreads rampant for sure lol. I fully expected to get some type of mature feedback from “adults” on here. Some of what I read is pretty good convo between people that even if they don’t see eye to eye, they are not one sided debating or bashing. The rest of you may seriously need to reevaluate seeking anger management, or even just some type of professional help for your ignorance. Name calling is childish, especially when whether or not the topic was real or hoax, the fact still remains that pedophilism is still a very real threat to anyones children…
Ashley, my darling —
I didn’t suggest protecting your children was a bad idea, I was just ridiculing the idea that many people fly into a cross-eyed frenzy at the mere mention of a single topic (pedophiles, for one) and go into automatic attack mode and will post pretty much everything within grasp that somehow, even if it is complete nonsense, that in some way SEEMS to deter pedophiles, even if it means jumping up and down 12 times and turning in a circle before going to bed as a way to protect children, just because someone on the Internet said that it MIGHT, even if it means re-blurting material that suggests sterilization might be the best option for future family planning.
Also, clearly you didn’t even read the post. Part 3 is broken up into two sections, which I shall paraphrase — (a) “Thanks for looking it up first you wise, smart person,” or (b) “Shame on you for not looking it up before you changed your status you bleating, snot-nosed hillbilly.” You pick either A or B depending on which applies to you. Whether or not you need a tissue is up to you =)
The defensive responses of those who fell for the hoax are great examples of fallacies “argumentum ad consequentiam” and “argumentum ad metum”, among others.
Also, the fear of pedophilia is blown way out of proportion. It’s fueled by over-saturation of sensationalist mainstream media.
Number one, some people DO put their personal address, phone number, etc., because their friends may need to get a hold of them, or to send a letter/email, etc. So everyone needs to stop posting, you’re such an idiot for putting that on there, when I assume almost all of you have your Cell number on your facebook. The fix to that is not adding names you do not know. Secondly, you try and tell a 12 year old kid that they cannot have facebook when ALL their friends have it. You see the things they’ll do. If you say your kid cannot have facebook, I GUARANTEE they’ll find a way to go behind your back to get one and hide it. The real solution is let them have a facebook, but monitor it. Lastly, as for these cartoon pictures, I believe that it would be Pedophiles who created it, as they most likely won’t be able to add most kids, but I would guarantee that there would be some kids who would fall for it. Just like there is many adults and teens who have fake profile friends on their account, just because that person has mutual friends with you.
@ Cole If you put private info up without any filters then you are a fool. If a friend (who you would tink would HAVE this info already) NEEDS to get in touch they can send a private message and then you can PRIVATE MESSAGE it back. Contrary to your resounding belief, I don’t have my cell phone number on there.
Oh wait. I am NOT an idiot!
And Yes I certainly WOULD tell my 12/10/8/6 year old they could not have an account. Its the ole adage of if everyone were jumping off a cliff…
By golly I did not let my kids have a cell phone till they were 16, and then with strict limited use.. And you had better believe I checked that bill, every number every month.
I also made sure I KNEW where they were.. at all times. And I enforced this by having surprise CHECKS! So they were taking a BIG chance if they strayed if that was surprise check time. Then they were in soooo much trouble it wasn’t funny, but I never had to enforce this becasue they KNEW from he past I would mean it, and hence behaved.
I also made sure I got programs on all my computers that monitored what they did till the day they turned 18. Did I tell them?? No.
I also had spies, but then they knew if they were dishonest the consequences were a lot worse then if they simply waited. I instilled this from their smallest childhood which many people do not do.
Because you and other idiot parents WONT tell their spawn NO is what helps AGGRAVATE these problems. That is your JOB as a parent! To say N O! NO! Try it now… NNNNNOOOOOOOOO.
And if your kid IS a sneaky bastard, then you should have had these talks with them a LOT earlier. There should be NO way an 8 year old or a 10 year old should be sneaking out to make these, because then you are not controlling the situation you are putting your kid in. If Johnny’s mom and dad allow it, he doesn’t go to Johnny’s. If Claudia’s parents don’t have monitoring filters, She doesn’t go to Claudia’s.
Damn! Nothing too hard about this if you are DOING YOUR JOB AS A PARENT AND NOT THEIR BUDDY!
It is YOUR fault if you have never broached these things to your kids and hence have to live in eternal mind numbing herd mentality in a freaking stampede rather then be confident in your kids.
@ Ashley Not taking chances doesn’t mean acting like an rampant springbok either. You don’t have the time to research? You don’t have 30 SECONDS to look on SNOPES? Then get off Farmville or . And maybe if people stopped spreading SPAM then there would be a lot less reason to research it.
No one said it would stop Child abuse. Heck i didn’t even put a cartoon pic up… But it very well could get people thinking and talking. The way you speak then get rid of all ribbons. Pink doesn’t cure breast cancer. Yellow Doesn’t do a thing to help out troops. Etc etc.
Why in the world would you post your personal information on Facebook? You aren’t even setting a right example for your kids. Who does that? And wth does having a cartoon pic up have to do with pedophiles? If you ask me children shouldn’t be on Facebook and if they are a parent should be supervising their page. SMH
I doubt it was started by pedophile at least not at first anyways, the first time I seen the post was a couple of weeks ago and it did not say anything about changing the picture to cartoon characters to stop child abuse it said to change them to your favorite childhood cartoon for the memories, I had a cartoon character (Scooby Doo) up for a week and then changed it. Now this week half of my facebook friends have a new post same idea but for a different reason, someone just wants to make a big deal out of nothing.
People who should be more concerned are those who put pictures of their kids in their profiles. Many adults like cartoon characters (Disney, etc) but putting up a picture of your children is a sure fire way to let anyone know that you have kids. Edit your profile to “private” and take your address and phone number off. Also, parents should be checking to make sure their “underage” kids are not on FB. Either way, if your kids know not to accept friend requests from strangers, it doesn’t matter if anyone has a cartoon profile picture. Teach your kids how to safely use FB- that is, once you teach yourself!
Delores Portholes, your foolish to put your phone number and address on Facebook. Now your just asking for it.
I wrote about this as well, agree with you as well, I don’t get into if this person is a pedophile or not due to the fact that none of us actually know but, rather what we do know, which is the affects that came of this event.
Whether the rumor is true or not….it is true that no organization of such prestige claims responsibility for requesting avatar changes. It is better to be safe than sorry. To the author of this blog: you obviously have no children since everyone of my children’s friends have profiles on facebook. It makes them feel cool or what ever. I monitor all of my children’s online activity.
Whether of not there are age restrictions does not keep them from starting an account. If I want to help then I will actively get involved or donate. I will not feel like I am saving the world by sitting on my lazy ass. Seriously this world is going to shit, and it is nondescriminating idiots that are making it possible for the lazy criminal minds of the world to pull the puppet strings and get you right where they want you. There is no absolute conclusion to this rumor. Only denial of involvement and “of course I’m not a pedo” statements. Of course someone who has 1st hand experience with being molested will “copy and paste” this message without research. You are very fortunate not to have had experienced rape as a child…..but many of us are not so lucky and yes we will proudly blow the whistle on any such allegation. Remember sir this is America and you are guilty until proven innocent. Or have you not ever experienced court? How about leaving the emotional ass calling to those of us who have experience instead of loose lips.
pedophile. known pedophile. help tell facebook we want him banned. numerous comments on childrens profiles. but nothing done
http://www.facebook.com/%5Bcensored%5D
The reason nothing has been done is because being a pedophile isn’t against the rules. Committing sexual assault is, but being a pedophile isn’t. That’s like being a murderer without having murdered anyone yet. Children under the age of 14, however, should be banned — because that IS against the rules.
Thank you! I can’t stand my stupid friends. They jump at every opportunity to engage these kinds of things and before I know it it is all I can read about on my mini-feed and in my email.
exactly. I just had to correct two people on this matter. I bet it’ll go on forever… Linking to your blog and cbs. Thank you.
I think I love you.
I am just pasting this link into all the idiotic posts on this I fully expect to see in the next 24-48 hours.
3b. You idiot sorry if we upset the pedofiles u clown Jesus
Don’t call Jesus a clown, Nico. It causes pedophiles.
It wasn’t in defense of pedophiles, it was in defense of actually considering, “Is this message, that I am posting, true?” before posting something in red-alert battle-stations mode. If you’re going to go on the war path with some kind of message that needs to be spread to the high heavens, at least make sure your message checks out.
All you FB followers, don’t follow, but do this: The group that told everyone to change their profile picture to their favorite cartoon character is actually a group of pedophiles. Theyre doing it because kids will accept their friend request faster if they see a cartoon picture. It was on Watchdog and is going to be on tonights news. Copy andpaste as your status And warn others to change their profile pics back
This does not make any logical sense to me. I would think if you are a pedophile you would just set your own FB account to cartoon character, and send it to the kids on FB. If it was really pedophiles who started this, isn’t rather counterproductive? They would never see the face of the one they are sending the invite to. Just a thought.
That’s the problem, ½ of these people don’t “think”. lol 😉
Its better to be safe than sorry. so i took my cartoon picture down. and i will not be putting one back. up. ..
So instead you’re putting up your real picture for actual weirdos to look at?
I don’t understand why people are worrying about this shit..it’s not like they’re going to drive all the way to your house to rape you. If so how are they going to get your address or phone number? Unless you people are actually dumb enough to post that on facebook…..I want to punch the people saying that pedophiles are going to come and rape us cause it makes soo much sense. Half of you people didn’t even read this…it said they’re going to ADD you so if you’re also dumb enough to add strangers then you’re soo gonna get raped ! (I’m kidding dumb butts) And like the dude above me would you rather have them looking at your real face?
I really wish there was a “like” button for Bah’s and thatsbs comments…………….. haaahaaaaa
You can be safe by looking it up before you post it. Then you won’t be sorry. Ever.
Are you also the type of parent that bombards their child’s system with antibiotics instead of taking them to a doctor? The flu IS a virus, not bacteria mind you…
i agree. people are so annoying posting stuff they don’t even question. they should give me their credit card numbers because facebook will start charging next week.
Thats not true at all, Facebook’s front page policy is “It’s free and always will be”
Uhm, that was sarcam.
I hope you die…
hilarious, apparently no one understands sarcasm
I’m not sure how changing my profile picture to a cartoon is going to help pedophiles make underage friends. I would think that it’s actually safer than having your picture as your main picture. Not to mention you should have your profile set to private for people not your friends, so again, why does it matter if a proflie pic is of Pooh bear or yourself?
well i reposted it for one reason alone….did the pedophilles really start this….HIGHLY UNLIKELY….but have any of them taken advantage of the situation at hand?….HIGHLY LIKELY…..
kids under 13 aren’t “allowed” to be on facebook or myspace….but just because they aren’t allowed to doesn’t mean they aren’t on there….just sayin
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/cartoon-characters-facebook-profile-pictures/story?id=12313096
Did u even read that link?? There’s nothing about pedophiles in there… And if they are on there while being under 13, its the parents fault. So be a better parent.
You obviously didn’t actually read that link, did you? I think you just validated the bit about if you link a link, they probably didn’t read it.
FYI. All the link you posted is a story about how people are changing their profile fics to cartoons. It talked about the original started in Greece and was to run from mid november to the 20th. Then a new version was sent out and went viral to do it as a statement against violence against children and it went viral from there, meaning it spread like wildfire.
It says nothing about pedophiles using the campaign to get access to children. And I disagree that it’s highly likely f pedophiles are using it whether it started out that way or not. It makes no sense at all.
Have you thought about this? Maybe this campaign got kids to replace a photo of THEMSELVES with a photo of a cartoon. That would make it a bit harder for the pedophile to find the kids wouldn’t it?
And if you were a pedophile, what better way to get those non human photos taken down so you could actually see who is a kid and who is not.
Let’s start a new rumor. According to a secret report by CBS, which only I can see, pedophiles started the movement to take down the cartoon pictures so they could more easily find out which profiles were kids. Here’s proof (but there’s no need to read it).
http://knowyourmeme.com/blog/how-to-troll-online-slacktivists
True; children aren’t supposed to have Facebook profiles but does it stop them? Hell no! And where’s the law stating that it’s illegal to lie? Any one can say anything on Facebook. So pedophiles can start some hoax cause to cover up their true intent if they want and it’s not illegal. I don’t care if the pedophile rumor is true or not; if there’s any doubt about it people should be concerned.
You’re also an idiot. Are you convinced theres an elaborate underground ring of internet pedophiles conveiniently located on facebook? I suppose there’s also an italian mob and taliban group there as well. Are they selling weapons of mass destruction?
Ryan, Before you start calling everyone idiots grow up how do you know theres not a taliban group or any group for that matter there is alot of illeagal stuff on facebook you have no idea about , people have a right to worry and so they should people like you are just wankers.
I have to agree Nick…Best piece of advice I have ever heard was…Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. So maybe it wasn’t started by a group of pedofiles, but that doesn’t mean it won’t cross their minds….thx
HOW would this even mildly help pedos and how would pedos even know which profiles are kids when they are telling everyone to make their pic a cartoon? If anything, it makes it harder for pedos to do their thing.
Perjury and fraud charges are based on lying.
children aren’t allowed to have facebook accounts? you can sign up with an email address. nice research though, you’re probably right, no kids have facebook accounts.
I didn’t say none have any, I said they’re generally not allowed to have accounts. Nice reading comprehension, Sherlock.
Jesus christ do we really not enough to worry about? who gives a shit about your little rant? who gives a shit about any of this bullshit?
Clearly you do.
sleepy. Its because little kids see a cartoon as the person adding them as a friend and not a 45 year old creep. you really don’t get that?
And you really think a pedophile will put up there own pic? OMG!! They would pose as a child themselves to get to kids. Haven’t you ever seen the MSNBC shows where they set up “stings” to catch these people? They chat with them online posing as children themselves and set up meetings with these guys. They show up expecting a teen or pre-teen and get escorted out in lovely handcuffs. I would hope that parents are monitoring their kids internet use and their FB accounts anyway.
And let me guess the kids all magically missed this post and dont have a cartoon as their picture? Because i’m pretty sure they’re on here more than we are, and since they’re a cartoon as well, how do pedos know who’s 11 and who’s 45?
Exactly
I saw a post on 4chan talking about getting people to post that reposting blurb on their facebooks, they were doing it for the lulz
Children are on email, facebook, twitter, and many other websites that you don’t know about. By creating this movement not only are pedophiles concealing their identities, they are creating a “support” group that is believed by the public to help protect children. By having a cartoon character as a profile picture, they are representing themselves as “safe” friends to add. If children receive a friend request by someone with a cartoon character, and they know about this movement, they will be more inclined to accept the request because they are under the impression that the person is against child abuse, and therefore is safe to add.
I’m sorry, but this whole thing is blown way out of the water..if you’re going to worry about this dont even begin to start worrying about if some pedophile finds a picture of a child online and uses it as their profile picture.. basically all kids need to know if they do have a Facebook is to not accept anyone you dont know as their friend..dont talk to them..nothing. and not to put any personal information up.But to make some changing of profile pictures into cartoon characters as something evil..it’s pushing paranoia to the next level.
Let me just say, for the record, that I have a facebook account, however, I am well over the age of 25!!! My profile, is private to the open public, and only visible, for those I choose to add to my friends list! I agree, with those who think young children should not have facebook accounts, but I don’t think these young children who do have them are to blame, they probably don’t Know any better! Evedentally their parents are not taking proper precautions to keep their children from creating these accounts, I mean honestly, someone has to show an 8 year old how to do it right?! I have a little one, and while he is just an infant, he will not even know what a computer is, unless he needs it to do homework! I think some people should be ashamed of themselves, that is, those people who have kids with facebook, or myspace, or even twitter accounts. I’m disgusted by it!
Wow, Americans are becoming more and more stupid and reactive and paranoid by the day. All you have to do is say “boo” and they freak out like a bunch of unhinged bizarre lunatics without even checking if whatever oddball rumor comes their way is true or not. So easy to manipulate. I fear the day when someone uses this ability to spur the raging loons to violence, but they’re dumb enough and reactive enough and easily set off enough that it’s only a matter of time.
http://abcnews.go.com/m/screen?id=12313096
Read your own article.
A few things i want to say:
I’m all about being safe on the Internet, and i don’t post any personal information about me on my facebook, youtube, twitter etc.
What i really want to know, is why millions of people are falling for this silly thing! Making your profile picture a “cartoon” is not going to save children from being abused! You could do so many other things if you really wanted to help children, but simply changing your profile picture is not one of them (in my opinion), and i just wont do it. Sure it’s fun and all but come on people, get real! If you really want to help, go out and make a difference.
🙂
I agree with you if someone wants to “make a difference” they need to get out and DO something.
But here we all are talking, posting and lots and lots of news articles/news segments have been devoted to this whole craze of cartoon characters. And what do they say at the end of each of these articles, posts etc? That it is for child abuse awareness month. I would venture a guess this subject has been Googled more since this has happened.
Not just that it is sure fun to see all the “characters” from the past!
You’re right, changing a profile picture doesn’t change the state of the world. Although, what many people forgot to take into consideration here was the word “awareness.” I’m not going to lie: the issue of child abuse is almost never on my mind and I’ve been a victim of child abuse, myself.
Perhaps it’s mild “slacktivism”, but it brings it to your thoughts–hence, the “awareness.” What is done after this is a wildcard: some people donate, some people research the issue, some pass it on and maybe that person will donate, etc.
That aside, wouldn’t it be counterproductive for a pedophile to start something like this? If everyone’s photo was a cartoon, there would be no point in changing your photo to such to lure in little boys because it wouldn’t be a lure tactic any longer. To quote, WAR IS PEACE. If anyone understands the reference. Or am I committing a logical fallacy here?
I believe that you should be more worried about the child molesters living within a mile radius of your child’s preschool. There’s 15 of them–I’ve counted. No, seriously. I’ve volunteered at the preschool my loving mother worked for as an FDA, I’ve seen the paper with a list of name and addresses of the CONVICTED child molesters living in the immediate area. You’d be surprised.
You don’t have time to research? That’s sad, so sad. You’re the kind of person who doesn’t look before they leap. You’re worried about an imaginary ring of pedophiles conspiring to get into your child’s pants, and because you didn’t take the time to research, you’re probably living next door to a Real Live Pedophile already.
If you ARE allowing your minor to have a profile on ANY SOCIAL NETWORKING site: Do you have complete access to their account? Are you making sure they are not posting viable information such as an address? Current location? School? Do their pictures posted have any tell-tale signs of locating them, such as a school uniform? your house? Is their account linked to your email address, or at least have access to their email address? HAVE YOU TALKED TO THE CHILD ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY?
I’m pretty sure you snoop on your husband’s email address or account making sure he isn’t cheating on you, while he slaves away at work. Shouldn’t you be doing this with your child’s cyberlife instead? Shouldn’t you be learning to cook? If you don’t trust him, why are you married to him, anyway??
Thus, why Reactive parenting is a FAIL, whereas Proactive Parenting is a WIN.
I graciously accept corrections, criticism, and overall input.
Uhm, duh but its about awareness.Does wearing pink cure breast cancer?
This was meant to go to a differ post.
Lobva,
Yours was the funniest post of them all. I came looking for information when my dingbat mother-in-law posted this on her FB account.
She is that grandpa type the original writer referenced…the one who sends all the political crap without ever checking.
Anyway, I’ve been reading everyone’s comments and I think my mother-in-law must be posting! Some posters are lacking the ability-to-detect-sarcasm gene.
The trolls are out and I’m just watching (and now posting) with complete fascination. *crunch, crunch* (eating popcorn).
Butter
I think it was just a symbolic gesture to represent a united common-good belief that child abuse *should* be eradicated, rather than as an action that would, itself, deter child abuse. I don’t a single abuser would have said, “Whoa, check that out, all those cartoon characters.. what have I done? I have seen the light, thanks to you, Bullwinkle.”
Thank you, Buttercup7. I do try.
Now if I can just have everyone’s credit card number, it will help donate to save the last mimzy.
My 7 year old niece and 10 year old brother have facebook, they got them because everyone has one… It’s the cool thing to do. So for all the people who say that kids don’t have facebook should really look at facebook more often… There is NO age restrictions on facebook, something someone needs to put a stop to. We have blocked any little ones in our family from using it however computer class in school teaches them to type use email and the internet. Unfortuantly Pedophiles use this site as well to lure children in. They will use anything to lure children in. I am a pregnant female and myself and my husband are scared of what this world is coming to and how easy it is for pedators to just find children. There is only so much a parent can do to protect a child. Children are smart and influencial. So people who say that things like this never happen really need to snap into reality. You can not be with your child 24 hours a day, there is ways to block them from those sites however your children are not with you all the time.
Yes there are age requirements for Facebook. I know for a fact, because my daughter wanted a page and when I tried to help her set it up I had to input her birthday and it responded that she was too young. I don’t know exactly the age requirement, but I do know it isn’t 10 years old.
there is an age restriction on facebook..its 13 years old….go read the terms and conditions
Facebooks age restriction is 13 years old, but there is nothing saying kids cannot lie about their age. This is where responsible parenting comes in.
Exactly Amanda. I see kids who I know thier real age on FB. They lie- and their parents either condone it or don’t watch what their kids are doing. I questioned the parent of an underage FBer (lied about the age) and was told that the kids want to play Farmville, etc. Some parents are perfectly ok with thier kids being on FB when they are too young to understand the potential problems.
The law says you can’t lie. It’s the same as making a fake ID. Falsifying documents, fraudulent activity, perjury..
@ Jeff do you think that pedophiles put their REAL photo up to begin with? Serious?
I’m with you Teresa
“Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal? To not see a human face on Facebook until Monday, December 6th. Join the fight against child abuse, and copy/paste to your status. Invite your friends to do the same.”
It was against child abuse, not specifically pedophilia. And I assumed it had been inspired by this campaign: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/60058/child_abuse/.
There was an additional version out, that suggested the child abuse idea was a ruse used by pedophiles to get children to accept friend requests more leniently. The additional version (a hoax, no less) played off the version you posted, which is the purportedly original style of this particular trend.
And you don’t think those pedophiles weren’t already out there? They’re not going to set up a “truthful” profile with their actual picture on it…How would that fool a child? Doesn’t anyone understand that pedophiles pose as children themselves online? Shame there are people out there that start rumors just to see how fast they will spread.
lets all be gullible for a second and actually believe what was being re-posted.
…why would you put pictures of your children/allow your children to have pictures on the internet unless they have clothes on? if their FB pictures are normal, what makes it any different than when you walk down the street and a pedophile sees them anyway…
teach your kids not to accept strangers as friends, or don’t allow them to have social network sites…problem solved
And this is why Facebook used to be available to COLLEGE students only. /: Wow.
wow. you guys are ridiculous. WHO CARES whether its true or not? we are all entitled to our own opinions, if you think it is true then take down your cartoon and tell people about it.
If you think its not then good for you, STOP ARGUEING ABOUT IT and act like adults maybe? for real, does it make you feel better to correct people on this?
No, it just makes the world better when lies are Not spread. Stop being gullible and the smart ones won’t have to criticize and/or call you on on your (un)intellect . Thats just kinda how it goes.
Boss B, so what if in two weeks it ends up being true, how will you feel then geez Parents have EVERY right to be worried even if its a lie people still need to be carefull.
reallife, the thing is even if it is true, there is nothing to be gained by a pedophile using cartoon characters as an avatar, and starting a fad over it. Would be easier to use a cartoon, yet keep a low profile as to not alarm people. If anything, this would complicate things for pedophiles. Nothing about this makes any sense, looking at the motivation for a pedophile in relation to what a bunch of random cartoon character profiles would accomplish. The only possibility would be the ability to hide in a crowd, which doesn’t offer much advantage for anyone trying to hide. The thing that annoys me is the generation of spam, giving me more crap to sift through because of peoples knee-jerk reactions to buzz-words, and the assumption that news articles actually exists when they don’t bother following up.. The only difference is my E-mail program has a spam filter, Facebook does not.
When I first saw this message posted, I replied that it made no sense. And while people are defending reposting this without checking it out. Do the words, LIBEL, DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER, mean anything to anyone?
You willfully posted a serious accusation against real people that now looks to be a lie. If I were them? I’d be talking to a lawyer.
How would you feel if people posted that about you?
As someone already pointed out, if everyone was changing their profile to none human photos, (isn’t that a GOOD thing?) How would the pedophiles know they were talking to children? It would be easier for them to actually see the child’s photo. and how is having a cartoon photo on your profile and invitation to a pedophile? That cartoon message was spread to EVERYONE. Adults, adults with no kids even and I’ll be those kids illegally using facebook changed their photos as well. Makes it kind of hard to find the kids without their photo, doesn’t it? A lot of people were posting cartoon pics. Hows that going to help a pedophile?
I never post photos of myself anyway. And since the main message was to not have a HUMAN face on facebook, I left my waterfalls photo in place, since it fulfilled the ultimate goal anyway.
And if you are so worried about a pedophile getting your info, why would you put your address and phone number on facebook in the first place. If you really want to protect your kids, remove that kind of personal info right away. that info is going to put your family at risk way more than a photo of a cartoon would.
Children do not have Facebooks. The only children I know with a Facebook account only do it so they can play the stupid little games on there. They do not post information and they do not have anything on their profiles to give a predator leverage. I am not saying that there aren’t some stupid parents out there who let their kids roam free on the internet, but I am saying that changing your profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood does not help the bad guys. In fact, it gives them a roadblock, if everyone on facebook put up a cartoon character instead of themselves, pedophiles/bad guys/predators would have a hard time telling the difference between a 55 year old man, and a 10 year old with too much time on their hands. Bottom line, if your kid wants a facebook, go tell them to play with a stick in the yard, it’s better for ya.
Well, I hate to break it to you, but kids do have facebooks. And while I’m not saying it’s impossible for parents to control their children, kids will be kids. At the end of the day you can’t really control and monitor everything that your kids do. I am only 17, so i was one of those 10 year old kids not too long ago. And even with the age restrictions on social networking sites, all me my friends and I just made up fake birthdays so that we could stay in touch via myspace. So that’s that. But as far as the big picture goes here, PARENTS! Reposting that rumor will do no good at protecting your children. The only thing that you can do is keep them informed and make sure they know the risks and precautions. And posting your phone number and address doesn’t set a very good example for starters. As a last side note, I was VERY disappointed to see a group of adults talking and acting this way. A lot of you should really be ashamed of yourselves. That is sad coming from a 17 year old. That is all.
I tried to explain that rationale to a few people and all I got was “Better safe than sorry” What?!
How about better comprehensive skills and deductive reasoning than stupid. America doesn’t run on donuts, it runs on fear and stupidity.
You took the words right out of my finger tips.
Bravo, Ann… Bravo.
Thank you!! The first thing that came to my mind when I saw that new status was, “Where’s the link to this ‘tonight’s news’?”
People seriously do need to make good use of the technology that’s available to them today — verify what you find out! Does it, like, seriously kill to google something like “Facebook cartoon campaign hoax” or “Facebook cartoon pedophile scam” or something? Geez.
Yes, apparently it does kill… Then rape you with a Hong Kong Phooey mask on. lol
I need your resources in order to fully label this as an opinion or fact.
@ Jan..thank you for making sense 🙂
My first question when I saw the status update about pedophiles was, “How does changing my picture help a pervert score with a kid?”. My second thought was, “When did pedophiles start having group planning sessions??”
LOLOLOLOL ! Thank you. At least you aren’t ignorant 🙂
Well you better get over it. Pedophiles do have group planning sessions. On Tuesdays and they will probably take over the world unless something is done about it. I know we could all change our facebook profiles to a cartoon character in order to raise awareness…
I hope that you’re aware that there are fifteen known Pedophile groups across the united states alone that actually hold functions and have been known to do things like this.
So i wouldn’t be so naive as to say they don’t have groups. After all, we have a bunch of alien weirdo’s run off to conventions to talk about photos. What’s to say pedophiles don’t have conventions to share their photos about as well.
Wow Drey! Ever thought about informing the FBI about these pedo conventions?
Some of you need to not believe everything you hear. Do any of you guys actually even know who these people are? The likelyhood of pedophiles making this trend is close to saying that you guys here are pedophiles. And who knows, you guys might be pedophiles but I bet that half of you guys and even know how people begin to become pedophiles or all the guilt some of them might face. Granted there are some messed up pedophiles but there is no way in hell u can be so stupid enough to let the media get u into thinking that pedophiles made this facebook trend. Oh and if u are stupid enough maybe ur a pedophile urself budday
Josh, Not everyone is smart like you think about it,
Poor old Grandma is on facebook and see this post and immeiditaly thinks of her grandkids and reposts it to warn others then it spreads, people will get scared and believe it NO MATTER WHAT calling everyone gullible is just ignorant.
GROW UP
normally, I’d agree with that, but most of these re-posts are in the 15-25 year old range.
Both of my boys have Facebook, I know their passwords and I am able to check it out anytime. A friend request comes through for them I get an e-mail first so I can ask who is this? How do you know them etc. It’s called being a parent, we talk all the time about internet creeps along with the creeps they see in day to day life- come on people be involved in your childrens lives, ask questions and listen to them! You can’t protect them forever but you can give them the tools and the know how on how to protect themselves.
Okay. Sad thing is, it was a pedo. I was added by multiple people, People who had no mutual friends, and all you could see was their name(obviously fake. It was Something Jones) and all my friends said they had gotten the same request, when none of us knew them.
excuse my language but…what dipshit adds someone on FB that they don’t know? doesn’t anyone realize that under free speech as it stands, i can go on facebook, get a picture from some girl with a fancy camera and use it in an add on a billboard and no one would say a thing? it’s perfectly legal!!! don’t accept a friend request from a “fake person” bad idea…
One reason for adding persons you don’t know is for Facebook application incentives. You can team up with friends to fulfill missions or achieve better scores and whatnot, to get to a better level in a Facebook-based game. If you’re big into a game and none of your “real” friends want to play along, then adding strangers to your list who do enjoy playing can increase those scores.
Ok and sad thing is, that there’s no real evidence that it really was a pedo. You probably had some bullshit porn people add you. Everyone does when they have facebook. I had no one different add me and no one had said anything.
Giantsfan how does this have to do with our situation here
lol my friend texted me tellin me my profile would get deleted for having a pokemon picture up. i def said bull.
im not adding little children and im not add creepy old pervs. (: but thanks to this site i got to tell him to suck it haha thanks
Children are allowed to have facebook accounts. all my families children have them. Might be a cutoff birthday. I still think its all bs. Paranoia runs deep my friends. Dont believe some stupid group is gonna take over facebook children with a profile pic. Get a life!!!!!
What’s funny is that everyone who admitted to reposting or believing this “pedos-are-coming scare-tactic” used poor grammar/spelling, whereas every logical individual saying “That’s a ridiculous theory” sounds like they made it past 5th grade.
Pick me apart if you want to. I just looked up the subject once I saw one of those copy-repost things coming from my own Facebook friends.
I really think everyone should calm down and if you’re that likely to be fooled into accepting a potentially dangerous stranger’s friend request because it’s a picture of Tom & Jerry instead of a forty year old man, why are you or your children on a social network anyway, and why are you adding people to your friends list if you don’t know them?
AMEN!!!!
You know it is bull when no one can give you which news is saying or going to talking about it. ROFLMAO!
agreed (: lol.
hey ME… your an idiot. Children’s lives revolve around social networks! That’s their lives in high school! Jesus, regardless if it was a ploy of sickos or not here are some facts:
1) I know heaps of children with facebook accounts… children LIE… hello… and they want to be like everyone else
2)children are still learning to use their logic…that’s why they are still children! They make STUPID decisions… and putting their real information on site is one of them!
3)To the person who wrote this blog: maybe you are one of the sickos trying to pass your bullshit theories that ” child abusers are people too” well THEY AREN’T!
4) I think the idea of putting a cartoon up to show abuse awareness is crap! I’m a teacher and I see this type of abuse everyday! It’s real, it’s horrible and a flipping cartoon doesn’t help anything. You want to help! Support the children in the real world not your sad pathetic ‘internet world’
I think the picture change is just an idea to show support, like wearing a color t-shirt or something along those lines, there are people out there who do support children. I understand where you are coming from but children need to be taught values that there are better things to do with your time and better ways to fit in or even stand out in a crowd than having a facebook account. It’s a nice way to keep in touch with people, and being a High School Student myself, I can understand the popularity in this age group. But until kids get to a certain age, they really could do more engaging activities than “liking” things of Facebook or whatever it is that those rabid Facebookers do. Me? I’ll be volunteering at a Boy Scout function or working with special needs kids.
I like this guy….I think I might add you on facebook hahahahaha!
I’ve noticed that most of the people that posted the re-post cannot decipher the difference between your and you’re for shit.
I guess you are against pink ribbons for breast cancer as well. Does about as much good, doesn’t it?
Except, it does keep the subject alive in society. Awareness is an important part of ‘doing something’. All those people who changed their profile, did so with thought and acknowledgment of the problem of violence against children.
How do you know it didn’t inspire someone to ‘do’ something else as well?
The profile thing was akin to wearing a pink ribbon. Wearing pink ribbons don’t stop breast cancer either, but is does keep the awareness alive. And without awareness, no one does anything.
I was abused as a child. And I think it’s ridiculous that people are acting offended that someone raised AWARENESS by asking people to change their profile photo.
While it won’t stop child abuse, at least it reminded people that something needs to be done, just like pink ribbons remind people of breast cancer and yellow ribbons support troops. Neither actually does anything, except raise awareness, but then that’ the first part is getting something done.
Boss B, So anyone who i’snt the best spellers or couldn’t afford a Private education are stupid retards and should’nt be allowed to use the internet. Grow up mate the world does not revolve around you
Peeps – Please do not EVER call someone an idiot when using “your an” as a preface. The correct form is “you’re an”.
Idiot.
3. And maybe you’re a sicko trying to pin the sicko label on me so that I won’t think that you think I think you thought I was thinking you thought I was thinking of you thinking about. Are you saying that people aren’t people?
You’re a teacher? Oh, woe…. Time to pull the munchkin out of public school….
Yes, children make stupid decisions. That’s why we expect parents to be SMART. Lamentably, most aren’t. So why don’t you be a good and productive, RESPECTABLE teacher and start a campaign on internet safety for the parents and kids? NO, you take the time to polish your blatant lack of logic here.
I say stop condoning the bad parenting.
As for the awareness, what’s the use of wearing a yellow ribbon to support the troops in U.S.A.? It’s the same little thing.
God forbid I would have ever disrespected a teacher this way, but teachers nowadays…. Oh, dearie me. Now I see why I have to reteach the kid everything….
Seems like someone is upset that us the ppl took precaution of a delicate situation ” shame on me” why?? Cuz I don’t want a pedophile as a friend or because I’m tryin to decrease the chances of one of them to get in contact with a child!! Article or no article you could never be too careful!
First, you should probably make yourself look a little bit more educated before you try to make a point. People don’t listen to people who say things like “cuz”. All they do is laugh and keep scrolling down the page.
Second, posting things aimlessly is never a good thing. People may say that Obama is the anti-Christ and will kill us all, but does that mean that I should take a precaution and post it on facebook without looking for myself first? NO! That idea is ridiculous. So precaution or no precaution, there is no justification.
Third, if you people claiming to be taking precautions had enough time on your hands to repost that hoax, you had enough time to google it. So once again, there is no justification.
There’s a pretty big difference between these two people:
Person Y is genuinely concerned about the welfare of children, and will do anything to make sure they don’t come into harm’s way, and checks out warnings and potential hoaxes before spreading them around based solely on the better-safe-than-sorry rationale.
Person X is genuinely concerned about the welfare of children, and will do anything to make sure they don’t come into harm’s way, and will utterly destroy their credibility as a witness by choosing to spout complete nonsense that they had full and ample ability to research before repeating.
Both of them are concerned about children, but one of them is a total douchebag. Don’t be a douchebag, is all I’m saying. Look things up first. If in doubt, you might even say, “I’m not sure this is true, but…” before the message. Take responsibility for the message.
First if all I did do research about the pedofiles! I found a news clip and some other articles! It’s only for a few days anyways so who cares! Get over it! What is a cartoon profile pic going to do anyways??? How about beating the child abusers down!! Take some real action!
Is The Pedo Files a new CBS crime-drama?
I am completely indifferent as to whether or not this is a hoax but what i CAN say is this. Everyone sees this as a counter-productive ploy by pedophiles but if you take a second and think logically about it, these scumbags could have done their searching ahead of time and made a list of every child they wanted to be friends with when their pictures were people. Then it wouldnt matter who changes their profile picture, they just search for the kids again once this thing takes effect. Just a thought. This makes me queezie just thinking about how sad the world we live in really is. I don’t have kids myself but it has me thinking twice about ever bringing them into this world. I mean whats next?
This is a pretty good discussion, I think that you should just look into the person that adds you before you add them. If parents tought their kids to check who the person is, then “cyber-raping” wouldn’t be such a big deal. And yes you can look at the persons picture on facebook even if they are not your friends.
If only pedophiles changed their pics because it is easier to friend children while concealing their identity, then everyone would be able to immediately identify who they are. By conspiring to create a trend among the ordinary public they would be able to hide in plain sight – you would not be able to pick them out of the crowd. It would be pretty clever, really, if it were true (which it probably is not). In any case, that would be the thinking behind it.
It should also be considered that, even if the trend was not started by pedophiles, they are certainly exploiting it at this point. If they weren’t already they would surely take advantage of the opportunity after hearing this rumor. Making it a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. Seeing as how this is a really stupid way for people to feel good about themselves without actually doing anything to help abused children, I would urge people to not participate in this trend.
Valid points, BUT — since this entire thing has been “outed” (for lack of a better word) — why would pedophiles NOW do it? Why would they want to change their profile picture to a cartoon to friend children now that this even a discussion? Wouldn’t the fact that some people say pedophiles are behind this whole thing put everybody on alert, and nobody will accept anyone with a cartoon picture after today?
Just food for thought.
It’s possible that it has changed from something with ill intent to just another fad. You just can’t be sure and neither can i for that matter. None of the people on here can.
There’s really no point in bothering with what “could be” actually going on when no one has any idea. It could be that psycho zombie porn stars started the whole thing, and then threw in the pedophile idea to throw people off even further. If we bother with what could have been, without actually finding out what did happen and didn’t happen, then the psycho zombie porn stars have won. Way to go =P
First of all I did post a picture of a cartoon because someones profile picture said it was to help raise child abuse awareness. Second of all I can’t believe you people are actually believing this…Why would anyone go to where you live ( and know where you live) and rape you or something when they can rape anyone closer to you. Third of all HOW CAN THEY POSSIBLY FIND YOU? Unless you are dumb enough to put your info on your facebook page. Forth of all they’re going to have a bunch of fun raping thousands of kids out there and some might be from different countries…yum. You people piss me off….cause you know the pedophiles are soo going to find out where I live and rape me and stuff ! yay!
Do you guys even have proof that they’re pedophiles?
whos to say the dude that wrote this isint one of the petophiles??? just a thought.
Crazy people generally won’t take your word for it, even if you tell them straight up. I, as the “dude that wrote this,” say that I’m not a pedophile.
Correction, dear ablestmage, you’re a “petophile.”
Yes, I know that I am now just being obnoxious.
oh and bye the way… I have a grade 7 student sign up for facebook at school! Here is another fact: kids are SNEAKY and if you think your are the perfect parent who controls what your child does, reads, watches or surfs YOU ARE AS STUPID AS THIS GUYS FIRST BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope your not a teacher at the students school because you’re grammar is horrible and this guys blog is one of the only articles that came up on Google about pedophiles and cartoon characters on Facebook. All of the others just talk about who’s going to join and how Greece originally started this trend; not a pedophile.
and now I’m fixing my own *your
It’s an iron law of the Internet: Any post making fun of another user’s grammar or spelling will itself contain at least one howler.
Punctuation and Grammar go hand in hand honey. Try using some commas and full stops. It will help me and I’m sure many other to take you seriously.
I want to like this with my facebook account… thank you. :]
As for the angry teacher: You are terrible. FOr a teacher you are not only guillible, but angry.
I reccomend you seek another profession.
Sister, ah…. it’s a relief to see a post of yours.
I love you.
Here’s the profile pic I put up:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2026862&l=2a74872920&id=1259109482 because child abuse is ugly, and we should look at that, not cutsey cartoons. The real irony to me is how many people are putting characters from VIOLENT cartoons on their profiles. Growing up, I sincerely believed violence was NORMAL, and cartoons were part of the PROOF! I thought something was wrong WITH ME because, I thought, everybody ELSE lived in violence, why couldn’t I suck it up and take it? To this DAY, I have to forgive myself for becoming tired or feeling pain & fear. I tolerate WAY too much deprivation and hardship, thinking I have to! peace.
Beautifully Said
Did we offend some fucking pervert or something?? Whoever wrote this is an idiot who must not have kids. When it comes to kids any kids you do whatever you have to do to protect them and ask questions later. I still don’t see any proof that they didn’t start this whole thing.
Hey Kory, just because you can spell doesn’t mean you have any common sense. Why don’t you mow your own lawn, quit worrying about what other people are doing!! Not everyone can be as smart as you!!!
Excuse me? Whoever wrote this is very intelligent. I love how everyone who doesn’t go screaming into an insane panic must NOT have children. I raised TWO children to decent adulthood, and yet I know to check SNOPES first and just not post namby pamby garbage. It is called using COMMON SENSE and not stupidity! This kind of thoughtless off the cuff stupidity has led to so many insane actions in the past like the lynching of people for things the perpetrators HEARD or THOUGHT they did. Something that if they had done research and such they would have learned they were wrong!
And the idea with even MOSTLY correct grammar and spelling is that those people seem to be more educated and less gullible and not out in la la land. Good language skills is an important thing if you want to be taken seriously. (Aside from the fact this program even has a SPELL CHECK!)
It seems to also be many of the same people who are whining about being so afraid for their kids from pedophiles are the same ones KNOWING ALLOWING their children under the accepted age of 13 to have accounts. So in essence they are KNOWINGLY teaching and allowing their children to LIE!
The whole point of the OP’s post was to 30 seconds and CHECK THE FACTS. That’s all it took me to SNOPE it.
C long…it is apparent that many of the people who have posted about this article DIDN’T READ IT! Or they don’t understand what they’ve read.
lol i agree with pedo killer and again the dude that wrote it is prolly chester the molester himself
He’s probably Mexican, too. Let’s lynch him. Hoho.
I smell a logical fallacy here…
So are you Pro-Pedophilia? The way you worded that makes it sound like it. Why shame on anybody for thinking that or copying and pasting it? Unless you are a pedophile yourself
JJ’s logic is ironclad! Anyone who doesn’t follow the panicked herd is a pedophile! Look out everyone!
hide yo kids…. and hide yo wife…
Nah, you’re pro-pedophilia if you don’t blindly copy and past stuff without verifying, and sending $50,000 to this swiss account number. lol
just a couple of small comments…the sad thing is that most kids are abused by someone they and their family know…protect your kids on the internet by going behind them and checking what they are doing…that’s all…thank you
Why did I reply to this article?…sorry ablestmage…I thought maybe someone would read what I wrote…apparently they simply did what they did to your
article…not give it any thought…say the word pedophile and
the truth doesn’t matter…I was molested as a child…but I am also a logical human who thinks before he writes…by the way…this thing has spell check people…use it
I wonder if the pedophiles that started this, got that book on Amazon?
like hes getting mad that the word is getting out……hes trying to protect their little cult of fat scummy middle aged men that prey on little kids cuz no decent woman in their right mind will give them any action….scumbags. and any normal parent wouldnt think twice they would just take the pictures down….wether its true or not…. just as a procaution
I have this new product that makes your kids invincible against the attacks of a pedophile. It can be yours for the low low cost of your life savings. Whether true or not any normal parent wouldn’t think twice about providing such a quality product for their kids. Just as a precaution you too should buy.
Don’t buy Gerell’s product! Someone told me that they heard from a friend that it’s going to be on the TV news tonight that this “precaution” was actually developed by pedophiles to serve their evil purposes.
Whether it’s true or not…beware and don’t buy it, because you can’t be too careful!
Unless you should buy it, whether or not what Gerell says is true, because you can’t be too careful!
(Dang…the logic is getting pretty confusing here…you don’t think we might have made an error in reasoning somewhere, do you? Well, if we did, we should be PROUD of that, because we only did it for the KIDS!!!)
So women can’t be pedophiles as well? It has to be fat middle-aged men? My! Forbid it ever be a handsome, make-me-wet-the-panties// give-me-a-solid-hard-on man.
Wait.
Wasn’t there a woman who was a fifth-grade teacher who was jailed for having sex with her student?
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/09/28/pedophiles-find-home-social-networking-facebook/
There’s a link from the news…
uh…that has nothing to do with this article…
Technology
EXCLUSIVE: Pedophiles Find a Home for Social Networking — on Facebook
By Jana Winter
Published September 28, 2010
look at the date…… and NAMBLA or whatever had nothing to do with this.
lmao notice she didn’t say heres “THE” link… She said heres “A” link. It IS “A” link… Even though it has absolutely SHIT to do with the discussion at hand. Thanks Monica.
I think you’ll fins that they were simply combating the people who were stating that “there are no pedophiles on Facebook so this must be a hoax”. So it doesn’t have to be about the current issue to still be used as evidence against the movement.
Itz better to be safe than sorry later..these are KIDS we r talking about…
Write correctly before you reply trying to be all high and mighty.
They haven’t attempted to be high and mighty at all. But you have made a personal attack simply because you don’t support their views.
At least i can happily say that you actually used correct spelling and no abbreviations. I can at least command that much of your slander.
The “safe” part is looking things up before you blabber it to the world. Way to be an example to your children, Mrs Safety Expert, by just hearing the mere mention of a single buzzword topic and spurting it out to the masses as if it were true — hey, better to be safe from the aliens by wearing your tinfoil hat, children — than being sorry.
Better safe than sorry…sigh…be a proactive parent…not a lazy one…I give up…
That’s what I’m saying here.
MAN DOWN!
I vow to you I will continue on in your stead!
Our kids is the most precious things that we have, so we have to protect them no matter what.
Protect them by being an example of the proper way to handle rumors.
Thank you!! I saw all this junk flying around and wanted to find a direct link to bat back at the fear-mongers!
So everyones up in arms saying this is false. And getting on people for reposting mindlessly following everyone else on this story. But what did you do to begin with? The original stupid post putting up childrens cartoons up spread like wildfire and more than half the people on fb didnt even know why they were doing it or that it was for “a cause”. I find it hypocritical to condemn people for wanting to protect their children from pedophiles when the same people jumped to put up pictures of mickey just because they saw it on a facebook forward.
Yes! We should take heed whenever some random rumor-monger on the Internet warns us about pedophiles, and do whatever they suggest, even if it doesn’t make sense!
Because you can never be too safe! Be proactive! Act first, ask questions later! Don’t just sit there…get up and run around in all directions like a panicked wildebeest!
After all, being unthinkingly reactive is never a bad idea! Doing stupid things suggested by others never has unfortunate consequences! If somebody says doing something will help keep your kids safe, then even if it doesn’t make sense, and even if you don’t know where the rumor started…do it! What could possibly ever go wrong!
P.S. I heard from somebody who heard it from somebody that people on Facebook are trying to get adults to wear clothes to work tomorrow to raise awareness about the heartbreak of sciatica…but then I heard from somebody else who said that it’s IN THE NEWS ON TV that this movement was started by pedophiles! Everybody, please go to work shirtless tomorrow to foil their plan! You can’t be too careful! Do it for the kids!
I just fell in love……. Marry me? Lol.
I just posted a comment earlier about this, but mine wasn’t near as funny or sarcastic. I made the following comparison: If you were told that Obama was the Anti-Christ and would kill us all, should you really repost it on facebook before doing some research? NO! I also said that the people who had time to repost such an idiotic notion also had the time to google it. People just don’t get it these days.
Glad you enjoyed it. (My fiancée has always said I have a silver tongue…or rather, keyboard.)
I actually noticed your Anti-Christ remark after I posted this, and thought it was a good comparison also.
(But wait…didn’t I just see an e-mail turn up in my Inbox from a distant relative about Obama being the Anti-Christ? With lots of ALL CAPS in it, plus a charmingly thumbless grasp of punctuation–which are always signs of reliability? Maybe there’s something to that after all…)
Wait, Obama is the Anti-Christ? That’s terrible! I’m heading to Facebook, I have to warn people!
HEY! I heard that if you post a picture of your BUTTS on FB that it will help us catch all the child molesters! EVeryone without a picture of their naked butt on FB will automatically be deemed a PEDOPHILE! I heard it so it MUST BE TRUE!
So everyone run out to the copier or grab your cell phones and snap away because you CANT Be too careful! Don’t bother to check this because we CANT BE TOO CAREFUL! NOTHING is too good or stupid if it protects …GASP… The CHILDREN!
SERIOUSLY I CAN’T TAKE ANYMORE …YES YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR FACEBOOK BUT YOU ALSO NEED A BIRTH DATE AND THE ONLY WAY TO HAVE REAL ACCESS IS TO LIE ABOUT YOUR AGE SO IF YOUR CHILD OR YOU KNOW ANY CHILDREN ON FACEBOOK THEN THAT’S JUST BAD PARENTING!
READ THE GUIDELINES PEOPLE
*Facebook requires all users to provide their real date of birth to encourage authenticity and provide only age-appropriate access to content. You will be able to hide this information from your profile if you wish, and its use is governed by the Facebook Privacy Policy.
You are about to create a personal account. If you are here to represent your band, business, or product you should first create a Facebook Page.
Taken from the Daily Mail:
Another user posted the following warning: ‘The paedophiles have it easy finding the kids this way from a cartoon in your past! Obviously if someone posts Spongebob Square Pants it’s probably a kid, now Betty Boop an adult!’
While some websites are claiming the British charity NSPCC is behind the cause, the charity has denied any involvement.
Indeed it posted the following statement on its Twitter page: ‘Although the NSPCC did not originate the childhood cartoon Facebook campaign, we welcome the attention it has brought to the work we do.’
Blogger Shayne House said: ‘Changing your profile picture does not really support the NSPCC unless it inspires or encourages you or someone else to volunteer or donate, which hopefully it will. Did it inspire you? It inspired me to write about it and make a donation.’
As the mystery continues to swirl – indeed National Child Abuse Prevention Month isn’t until April – the enormous scale of influence the campaign is having is being noted across the world.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336035/Facebook-cartoon-character-campaign-NSPCC-charity-says.html#ixzz17ItpY298
Are you seriously linking to the Daily Mail as evidence?
Are you seriously having a go at a sight that gets more readers than this sight. I just don’t see the logic in the legitimacy of your comment.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like a slight contradiction. Daily Mail at least has people on their team that do research for a living. My guess was that the guy who wrote this blog is probably thirty-five years old and living in his parents basement.
They’ve stated that the NSPCC had nothing to do with this fad and supplied a reference to it. As i see it, this person at least did more research then the writer of the blog. They even found material from the supposed starters of the fad.
So perhaps you should think carefully before having a go at someone who has done more research into the issue then yourself.
The Church of Scientology has more members than my fan club. That’s some instant credibility if you ask me.
all of this shit is dumb
Amen!!
Somebody who sees the light and logic in this illogical mess.
EVERYTHING YOU HEAR AND READ IS TRUE… THE INTERNET NEVER LIES..
IT JUST BREEDS MORE IGNORANCE
What, you mean I don’t have an inheritance from a long-lost dead rich uncle in Nigeria? lol
to the post about ten year olds with facebook accounts…..
if you ACTUALLY READ the FACEBOOK TERMS AND CONDITIONS, CHILDREN UNDER 13 ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE ON FACEBOOK
and if their parents are lying, creating accounts for them, or not paying attention to their child’s activity on the internet then it is the parents screw up!
the cartoon campaign is to make people aware of abuse….and their is indeed proof of such a thing, and if YOU as a parent are not monitoring your childs internet activity, then you should be slapped upside the head!
sure ten year olds are as you said “social” but they have NO business being on FACEBOOK, its called, go outside and play, invite friends over to watch movies….you know all that stuff we did in life BEFORE the internet……
Wait….pedophiles get together and discuss strategies? Like is some sort of club setting? Weird…(note the sarcasm)
Yes, in the united states it’s called NAMBLA. They also have a facebook club.
I have been following the comments being made about changing the picture to a cartoon character. I also read the link on Fox and saw the NAMBLA name. Discovered it stood for North American Man/Boy Association. I went to my fb page and searched for it. Found it had 18 members with only 3 actual pictures. The rest were cartoon characters. So is the threat real and are they afraid of being identified or maybe man/boy really means 25 yo man and 18yo boy.
Or is someone just yelling FIRE in a theatre?
Just FYI, being a member of a Facebook group doesn’t make you an active participant of that organization or a supporter of any kind. Some groups deny posting access to anyone who isn’t in the group, so in order to argue against a point stated in the group, you would have to join the group in order to comment. I’m a member of several groups that have titles opposite of what I believe, just because I want to comment on things they say, not because I agree with the title.
i bet a pedophile wrote this article.
I bet you’re from Neptune.
Kids do have fb accounts.
For all the people who say “Im not taking any chances” you are taking a chance just by logging on to the web every day. And a “group of pedophiles? Really? I didnt know they actually got together and planned these things out. I would have thought a pedophile was a solo kinda creep. I knew that post was a fake.
THIS.
If you’re stupid, and you’re browsing the web…you’re taking all sorts of chances every day.
You should unplug your computer forthwith. Do it for the children! You can’t be too careful!
see what i think is tht ppl who change their profile pics to cartoons ARE THE PEDOPHILES. it makes it easier to find a pedophile friend if u know what to look for. why not let it be something kids like? cartoons. shit i know 8yr olds tht have a myspace and a fb. their parents monitor them but whos to say some other parents do? some parents are oblivious to children having a social network. its not hard to hide stuff from ur parents. look at the teens who drink and do drugs…how many of those parents know? how many of those parents would allow tht kind of behavior? not all parents are dumbasses but some things are over looked or else we wouldnt have teens under the influence or having unprotected sex along with popping out babies.
yes ur right i do sound like a dumbass for saying tht pedophiles are the ones posting the cartoon characters to find friends but have u watched the news lately? they are in chat rooms talking to kids and finding a way into their house. dateline mbc news. pay attention folks not everything is impossible.
I was just telling someone else about a hard lesson I learned by trying to be a know-it-all on the Internet. I was telling my very well-educated Aunt that KFC changed its name not to eliminate the word ‘fried’ but because the state of Kentucky trademarked the word ‘Kentucky’. “Where did you get this information?” she asked. I had heard it on Snopes.com so I went to Snopes and checked out the links to the source articles so I could wow her with my brilliance…Surprise, there was no information stating what I had just told my aunt. Then, I saw a footnote attached to the original article, which can be seen here: http://www.snopes.com/lost/false.asp
At first, I was outraged, embarrassed, and upset that I been made to look like such a fool. I trusted Snopes! This taught me a very important lesson in that you trust NOBODY until you read the information from a very sensible source (don’t even trust it if it says it came from a “study” either). Some interesting things to ponder here:
1) So what pedophile gave up his crew to tell someone, “Psst, actually we’re having people do the cartoon avatar thing so we can take advantage of children…Just don’t tell anyone okay?”
2) Pedophiles are actually going to spend days and days gathering fully clothed pictures of your children off the Internet after they get them to add them…Oh wait…they’re NOT fully clothed? Well, someone needs to have a talk with their child about adding people they don’t know AND putting racy photos of themselves up…and about having a FB account in the first place. Pedophiles probably aren’t going to bother stalking your kid’s FB page and is probably going to stalk the kid OFF the Internet…you know, the ones that still play outside and don’t sit inside turning pasty white chatting on FB? They also like using file sharing sites and that’s where you hear about them being busted online. FB would be a bit tedious. You’d be better off being worried about your kids in chat rooms or kids’ sites like Club Penguin where children are guaranteed to be hanging out.
3) Of course the people who wrote this blog and who have commented care about their children and other people’s children, but they are using common sense to pick WHEN to freak out and when not to. The problem many of us have with those of you posting this stuff about the cartoon meme is that some of us have changed our profile pics, have enjoyed the memory trip, and then have some on their high horse trying to tell us we are being “stupid” and endangering children. Yet, some of you are publicly proclaiming that your children have Facebook accounts and shouting the house down that other people don’t care about children because we aren’t removing our cartoon avatars. I’ll tell you what, you get your kid off Facebook and I’ll remove my cartoon avatar. Deal?
4) Just how in the hell is changing an avatar spreading any “awareness” anyway? I think it’s more of an excuse for people to have fun with their avatars. If people really want to make a difference then volunteer, give to charity, adopt, mentor a child, etc. My 4¢
P.S….A little snippet from Facebook’s Terms of Service (scroll all the way to the bottom of your FB page and click on ‘Terms’):
5. You will not use Facebook if you are under 13.
6. You will not use Facebook if you are a convicted sex offender.
Whether true or false, it was a nice idea of having your favorite cartoon character as your profile picture. But I agree, that pedophiles do not need any more ammo in getting access to our kids these days. There are enough gadgets in the world that give them that. Yuck!!! That stupid barbie with the video camera in it that mattel was gonna pull from the shelves?!?!? I hope they get sued for it!!!
Yes, they do have a club. They also have a page on Facebook.
But in all seriousness…I’m quite apathetic to this entire thing. although I changed my profile picture as well, I mainly did it because I’m a sheep. I didn’t even know it was about a child abuse thing – I thought it was change your pic to a Pokemon! THEN I hear this hub-ub about pedophiles? Oh my…next month will be something like change your profile pic to your favorite animal, and I bet someone into Beastiality will found it.
Not to mention the fact that even if you put a cartoon character as your profile, you aren’t going to friend request anyone that you don’t know or at least I hope you wouldn’t & your pictures should only be viewable by Friends only or Friends of Friends
OK, I’ve read alot of posts, both from people worried about this, and from those chastising them for over-reacting. The latter is easy to do for anyone who knows anything about computers, because the suggestion makes no sense from a technical perspective. There are alot of people who use computers and the internet, while not really knowing how they work. The same way I use a car to go to work, but I don’t know what exactly happens under the hood. I’ve had mechanics tell me I’m an idiot for how I used my trucks 4 wheel drive, while that same mechanic had mal/adware and virii installed that make me cringe (including running the “free online virus scans” that are faked on various sites. Hilarious looking at those when you use Linux.)
I actually got suckered into this whole annoying mess because I decide to change my profile pic to a cartoon character from a game I used to play as a kid, not realizing there was a viral movement to do so (Generally, I have better things to do than follow such things).
However, I’ve read enough posts about the pedophile-paranoia, and have enough free time to wonder look into what the hell is going on, which lead me to this site, among others. Plus, I DO have a 4 year old daughter, for whom I maintain a “dummy account” if you will. This is to facilitate sharing pictures and news with extended family, while maintaining a the ability to “separate” her information (which is COMPLETELY locked down via privacy settings) from my account, in case some random friend request slips through my personal account, as befriending strangers seems to be a theme in some of the FB games. (I ignore farmville requests, but there are others I do enjoy)
This, in addition to using FaceBook to socialize and meet people with similar interests, I have the ability to screen people before determining if further communication is safe, and to what extent. (The privacy settings for my daughter are all set to “friends only”, and I go as far as to use an emulated environment to log into her account, though this very secure, its also not for the faint of heart).
If somebody feels better changing their profile pic back, then by all means do so. It doesn’t affect the endgame any more than the original premise does, beyond raising awareness. (which according to the organizations website, for which I clicked the tab off and can’t dig up the URL, they weren’t expecting, but are thrilled at the attention). This whole viral annoyance has at least brought to light 2 (perhaps 3) major problems to a large audience.
1. Child abuse exists, and many people are sympathetic towards helping prevent this. And some might even take action when they otherwise wouldn’t.
2. Pedophiles are a serious problem, also needing to be tended to. Though much work has been done in this area, there’s another problem:
3. Over-reaction to pedophiles. Before acting against a threat, people tend to not realize if the threat is legitimate or not first. Something as simple changing a profile pic is a “better safe than sorry” for people who don’t understand the technicalities behind it. (Not everyone has a 4-year IT degree, or is a self-taught hacker) But the rantings of “kill-em-all!” (which has happened with this little fad alot less than I expected) get really old, and only feed a frenzy that a potentially empowers pedophiles. Assuming the act is about control as much as more carnal reasons, one legitimate pedophile can start a mass panic by starting this whole annoying rumor. The only good resulting from this is perhaps the individual has “satisfied” their fetish for a week or so (admittedly, only prolonging the inevitable return to the previous sordid behavior).
Anyway, the important thing is the safety of the children, and the peace of mind of their parents/guardians. At least to a degree. I say to a degree because a legitimate threat to a child’s safety needs to get the attention of their parents in any way necessary, though still needs to be approached with a level head (as much as possible, anyway. People are people, and messing with somebody’s kid is going to invite irrational behavior, which isn’t always a bad thing).
The best thing to do is NOT post personal informanion EVER on ANY PUBLIC FORUM. If that forum doesn’t allow such anonymity, don’t use it. Also, if you’re children use a computer, MONITOR THEM!!! Doesn’t necessarily need to be in the same room, there are alot of programs that facilitate this. IMSafer is a good one for chat rooms and such (I know this because my mother in law was informed of a conversation my wife and I had, because she used her mothers computer, who installed it for my 16 year old sister-in-law. Made for a rather awkward dinner conversation to say the least, at least her mother thought it was funny….)
Also, yeah, kids like privacy, but in the endgame, their going to like what could happen to them if that privacy isn’t monitored (Yes, I know that statement is contradictory) alot less. Changing a profile pic. just isn’t going to be enough to keep kids safe, active monitoring and being open about these dangers will go a long way, though.
If I’m rambling, I do apologize. I suffer from ADHD (or more people around me who don’t like rambling suffer from it), and my medication tends to wear off about this time of night.
Well said. Also – looked at the IMSafer monitoring program… Totally going to use this (or an equivalent) when I have children. 🙂 Thanks!
so i don’t get it is it a lie??
It is all here-say. There is no evidence to prove or disprove the matter. Simply make your own opinion, or do what i’ve done and pick on both parties. Its more fun to walk the line then choose a side.
Probably, yes. It really doesn’t matter too much technically, there’s not a whole lot somebody can determine by what your profile pic looks like, if your privacy settings are locked in.
Yes Sammie, it’s a lie.
There are no pedophiles, though really the entire ‘no faces on facebook until 12/06’ was stupid anyway.
There is already enough ‘awareness’ out there, but what people need to do is take action against child abuse.
Nothing is going to happen just because you change your default photo to a cartoon character, however if you go out and donate to a reputable charity, perhaps a few children would actually be saved…
I have my phone number and address on my page. I ONLY add friends that I am actually friends with, and those who should already HAVE my contact details.
I also have every setting on “friends only” so that “friends of friends” can’t contact me 🙂
Or a few charity fund managers might be able to buy a new yacht. (Sorry, hopelessly senile this time of night)
Why in the world would you shame someone for tryin to be careful. what makes you so holier than now.. There is nothing wrong with trying to protect children and as i read that another person said.. puttin up cartoon pictures when it says anything to do with petafiles just sounds wrong and does put up red flags.. i think this is bs.
What in the hell is a “petafile”, and why would they be so fond of cartoons?
lol This.
I think it’s a word document about a type of bread. Or perhaps a genuine person who just didn’t know how to spell the word. In either matter, does the spelling really effect the current issue in the least.
People here just seem to be overly petty.
Cheyenne you sound about as smart as your exotic dancer name. #imjustsayin tho
Don’t make me get Boss A to put you in the corner for picking on people names now Boss B, or maybe i should call you Boss E, nahnah.
You’re not trying to be careful by posting things you don’t even know are true. You’re not even trying at all, you’re just being a robot that will spit out any nonsense that it hears. Be an example to your children about how to handle rumors.
i think this website is bullshit . maybe this guy is a petophile trying to tell people that , that cartoon thing is a mith so that you will keep doing it . i trully believe that petophiles are doing that whole cartoon picture thing to get kids attention . and theres billions of people in the world who probably have a facebook and your saying that NONE of them are kids ? ? what ? ! your stupid then . and people dont research this cause no body wants to see if it’s true or not cause no body really even cares . . thank you (:
Is this a piece of performance art, or are you really that functionally illiterate and stupid?
P.S. Is a “petophile” anything like a “petafile”? Or are you calling our attention to a whole new menace we need to panic about? (FOR THE CHILDREN!)
XD Every time I see one of your comments, I laugh in appreciation. I award you ten internets 🙂
You missed that they misspelt Myth, thy wrote mith.
I also rather enjoyed reading your comment. It actually made me smile.
Sadly, being a teacher and having a coworker being pinned for child pornography, i can’t simply sit idly. Although i highly doubt any pedophile started this. But i bet the person who did is currently up-taking a hermitage on some distant island. I wish they would crawl out from under the rock they’re hiding under, that way i could shake their hand for rattling so many cages for asking people to do something so simple.
“petafile”=something that slipped past the ‘ol spell checker. 🙂 Could happen to anyone, really.
Cheyenne: I’m all for being careful, but false alarms can cause more harm than good in many situations. Though this one is hard to imagine being harmful, aside from the annoying 20+ status updates that say the same false alarm. It may warrant further investigation, which is probably how you ended up here in the first place (this is a good thing), but not blindly pasting it without knowing more.
Pedophile: “ooo this person has a picture of Pikachu as their profile pic, let me add them and hopefully it will be an 8 year old”
Old Geezer: “wtf who are you?”
Pedophile: “Sorry I thought you were a kid since you have a children’s pic.”
Dumbasses who believe pedophiles started this light-hearted campaign.
Everyone on here seems to be irrational. This is not just about being right, the woman above who leaves addresses and phone numbers is just being nieve, but she has a point those of you obvious individuals who don’t have kids should realize that you are not around your kids 24/7 and if you are than you are being pathetic and may per chance alter your child abilty to be social. A 10 year old child goes to friends house, or schools where most computers are not 100% monitered. Our 10 year olds now a days are smarter than the average bear hence allowing also to be more of a target to fleating pedophiles because they now can relate to them more in a mature manner. The individuals who continuously bash the woman for her flaws and misguidings are also pathetic, so to say. It is obvious none of you have children, or are mothers because most of you are men, The moment there is a sign of danger towards your children even an unrealistic one, you are guarded like a mother bear to her cubs and you with decapitate anything, “I mean anything that will suggest danger and harm towards your babies.” So yes if she cut and pasted the fucking message then is was more out of extreme fear that something bad could happen, also it is obvious given the title of this forum that she decided to research the fucking comment because her red flags did come up. So if everyone can stop being idiots and realize there is a different point of view in every case and scenerio, then maybe we can solve issues like pedophiles hunting our children and maybe even advertise child abuse issues without making things worse due to our jaded point of views and egotistical arguements. Your only bashing individuals because you yourself don’t know your own knowledge. If you knew what you were all talking about than you could actually discuss and issue instead of shredding one.
I’ll admit I stopped paying close attention at “nieve”…but it seems you’re saying a good parent should react irrationally and out of extreme fear? Just as viciously, and no smarter than, a mama bear? That you have the right — nay, the obligation — to “decapitate anything” when you smell the slightest bit of real or imagined danger?
Why do I get the sense that it would be frighteningly easy to incite some of you to round up and burn some witches? (For the children! You can’t be too safe!)
Ok people, those that are worried because their address and info is on their profile, change your freaking settings so that friends only will see your information. IF and that’s a BIG IF a pedophile befriends you on FB, then that’s your own damn fault for accepting a friend from someone you don’t know…secondly your children shouldn’t have their own accounts and be able to accept a friend. If we as parents do our jobs, then we will monitor their pages or say no you aren’t allowed to have one. Kids are WAY to obsessed with social networking. What ever happened to going to a friends house to hang out, riding bikes, family time or hard work and values? It’s ok to tell your kids no! Be smart, be aware of what your kids are doing and seriously think about stuff before you just post it.
Oh and too add another point, Please mothers out there, make your freaking profile private and only to one you trust, and if anyone wants your number message them for gods sake. Put your damn pictures of your children on lock down no one needs to see them. There is still email you know. And you can by name specific allow only certain people to see them like your husbands etc. Pay more attention to the set up of your facebook than commenting on things like the freakin farm thing. Also Everything on the internet is fragile to pedophiles. You know there are smart ones out there that don’t need face book to lure kids. So pay more attention to not allowing your children to add people. You can do that its called firewalling things, You can even do it with specific words. Where you will need a password yourself for life. The only reason I myself considered posting that comment is because just in case there was any evidence for that there are a lot of women out there that do not know what their children are doing and they might need to visually know these things. Did anyone ever think that the suggested pedophile plot could of been for the parents. Get the parents to change to cartoons try to add the parents stating that its for child abuse and they are trying to add you too there awareness campaign, then when you add them they get access to all of your pictures including the ones with your children or your sisters children copy and paste whoopdido jack off time. Because most of you DO NOT make your photos private. DID ANY OF YOU THINK OF THAT ONE.
Anyways I am done with this one……………… I have no more to say
the end
You guys do realize that this is why the rest of the developed world see Americans as total idiots right? You really believe that some secret cult of evil mastermind pedophiles have converged in their cave of doom and came up with a plan to trick children into changing their pictures so that it’s easier to kidnap them? Hmm, perhaps you shouldn’t drop your children off on playdates at a trailor park with a 40 year old mullet bearing sex offender in the front yard. As a personal tip, don’t post those stupid statuses on facebook, it only makes yourself look foolish. I’m trying to tell you something useful, but since it’s contrary to your opinion, I guess that means I’m a pedophile :(. Oh well, you’re all just a bunch of scared idiots anyways.
Your totally right bluesfan i feel soooo foolish i made this my status shouldn’t have listened to a bunch of dumb-asses !!!!!!
hahahaha i knw i put pics like tht all the time….dnt mean shit get over it ppl….ps dont put ur personal info dumbass
Yup.. This is the one..
1) I am not a parent, Im a 29 yr. old man
2) My 1st thought was, “I dont believe this pedophile thing on fb”
3) I researched.
4) after 30 minutes of “research” I found NOTHING but THIS on TWITTER.
5) I stopped researching…
6) When the trend of cartoon characters STARTED, it said nothing about “Child Abuse” only when “telephone” got to USA, did it change to this…
7) I NEED evidence before I post INFO to a SOCIAL NETWORK site that LOTS of people read…
8) I understand the CONCERN of parents first reaction by taking their CARTOON pic down…
9) P.E.A.C.E.
Who needs evidence?…I don’t need an official paper saying that changing your Facebook status to a profile picture means such and such. It’s free will. I love seeing what cartoons people watched when they were little, and I’d rather have a cartoon then a personal picture.
If I say it’s for Child Abuse then it is.
Just by saying that, I’m raising awareness. I’m bringing the topic back up, and reminding people that it’s a problem.
At any point I can put a picture of a bra on there and say “This is to raise awareness for Victoria Secret”.
Nobody dictates what we do on Facebook or the meaning behind it.
All of you wondering why ppl put their address and phone number on their profile, it’s for your friends. If you retarded enough to put your profile open and not private then YOUR the dumbass
Registration and Account Security
Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here are some commitments you make to us relating to registering and maintaining the security of your account:
You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.
You will not create more than one personal profile.
If we disable your account, you will not create another one without our permission.
You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).
You will not use Facebook if you are under 13.
You will not use Facebook if you are a convicted sex offender.
You will keep your contact information accurate and up-to-date.
You will not share your password, (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account.
You will not transfer your account (including any page or application you administer) to anyone without first getting our written permission.
If you select a username for your account we reserve the right to remove or reclaim it if we believe appropriate (such as when a trademark owner complains about a username that does not closely relate to a user’s actual name).
this is also besides the point that kids will lie about their age. parents should really be watching their children more carefully on the computer especially while they are on the internet. so people please stop the bitching and fighting about the age allowed on facebook.
it all boils down to PARENTS needing to be RESPONSIBLE for their children. can they protect them from everything? no. can they try to do so without making themselves and their kids paranoid? yes.
the end.
I JUST WANT TO SAY FIRST OFF THAT WHAT I AM ABOUT TO WRITE IS MY OWN PEROGATIVE ON THE WHOLE SUBJECT. 1st.–IT SHOULD NOT MATTER ONE WAY OR THE OTHER IF IT WAS TRUE OR NOT, IT IS AND DOES SOUND LIKE SOMETHING A PERV. WOULD DO. (REGARDLESS CHILDREN SHOULD BE THAUGHT OF FIRST AND FORMOST) 2nd.–IF YOU DO NOT THINK YOUR CHILDREN OR OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN ARE NOT USING THE COMPUTER’S (YOUR OWN OR SOMEONE ELSE’S) YOU ARE SADLEY MISTAKING. MOST KIDS 10 AND UP AND EVEN YOUNGER HAVE ACCESS TO PHONES AS WELL THAT HAVE F/B ON THEM. 3rd.–LIFE IS TOO PRECIOUS TO WORRY ABOUT WRONG OR RIGHT, YOU MAY SECOND GUESS THINGS AND BEFORE YOU KNOW IT…YOUR TOO LATE.WANT TO TAKE THE CHANCE? LOSE A CHILD THEN SAY FEARMONGER!!!!! YOU DAMN STRAIGHT, IT HAPPENS WAY TOO OFTEN, NOT TO FEAR A CRUEL WORLD OUT THERE. LAST–IT IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE YOUR OWN CHOICES TO MAKE RIGHT, WRONG, OR INDIFFERENT, WE ALL HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE TO PROTECT THE YOUNG AND THE INNOCENT, REGARDLESS, TRUE OR NOT GROWN UPS COULD USE ANYTHING OTHER THEN SOMETHING THAT WOULD EVEN PROVOKE A PERVERT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM….WHAT NO LANDSCAPE PICS, ISLAND GET-AWAYS….A CARTOON CHARACTER INSTEAD…HUMM!!!! MOST CHILDREN WILL NOT HAVE OUR CONCEPTS TO KNOW BETTER——DO YOU?
So if I decipher your musings correctly, you’re suggesting that we eliminate thinking about right or wrong?
Correct. To quote a previous post, this is why the rest of the developed world believes that the U.S.A. are idiots.
Quick, there is someone with a knife chasing you! You come to the cliff; you jump–SPLAT! Oops, there wasn’t a lake full of water? Look before you leap.
Kids are crafty, not going to lie. I was a horrible child: My mother, working two jobs, would take the phone cord so I couldn’t use the internet. Oh, I went out and bought another. Mother managed to find out shortly after, why? She was a good parent and covered her bases: she would have her two sisters constantly monitor my activity when she was out. So she decided to take the computer monitor; I was stumped as to what to do next.
Oh, what happened here? My mother was a proactive parent who used every resource available at her fingertips to protect me in what I then considered the silliest way possible. Yes, she gave me lectures on internet safety which I still use to this day, but she also knew that wouldn’t be enough. I was smart, she would adapt and be smart-ER.
I believe the “perogative” or prerogative, which is what I think you originally meant, has become your derogative here. You claim to have the “concept to know better,” yet “life is to precious to worry about right or wrong.” No wonder your child has no concept of anything! I wouldn’t be surprised if they ran into oncoming traffic. Why are we allowing people like you to procreate anyway? Oh, yeah. That’s why: your stupidity will be the death of you.
1.
the fact that some one is abusing the world wide web about something that may or may not be fact is quite strange to do considering they are a full grown adult and blowing something like this out of preportion will not get anyone anywhere or solve anything
2.
children under 13 years of age should NOt be using facebook they should be out side playing or doing something more productive not being filled with the internet.
3.
I am 17 years old and i have had facebook for 2 years and i have never really had any problems only problem with interent social sites is the cyber bullying when one person is tormented and basicly mocked by other teenagers for the strangest of things which ends up with the police being involved or worse teenage suicide and the past couple of years cyber bullying and teenage suicide has gone up so connect the dots there are other things to be more concerned about then someone going nuts for basicly nothing because no one knows if its true or not and until we all find out its true should it matter then but honestly there are other things to worry about then going nuts at people and basicly saying “shame on you” when this woman dosnt even know us or the actual story behind everything she has pretty much made her self look like the “idiot” here but as i stated before theyre are other things to be worried about.
There IS an article regarding this on abcnews.com and I DID actually read it… I found an interesting article on ABCNews.com on this subject. It’s a quick read… take a look.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/cartoon-characters-facebook-profile-pictures/story?id=12313096&page=2
Pretty good article on the general origins of this latest “fad”, though a search through snopes reveals a more detailed article. (assuming one is as bored/insomniac as myself right now)
http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler/2010/12/05/cartoon-characters-on-facebook-is-the-facebook-cartoon-campaign-a-hoax/ . I posted this twice, but not as replies, apparently these need to be moderated. Apologies for re-posts that pass moderation.
If you want to protect your children, you need to TEACH them how to protect themselves when you aren’t there. I’m going to post a few very simple teaching rules that I’ve seen used in several households, and every child in those households turned out to be incredibly self-sufficient, intelligent, and successful.
1. “Don’t talk to strangers.” Yes, you have to talk to strangers to make friends, but you never talk to someone you haven’t personally met before.
2. If someone asks you to meet them in real life, tell mom/dad and ask if they can take you there. That way, if it is some kind of predator, your mom/dad can call the cops.
3. Never post personal information/photos of yourself. Your friends already know all of that stuff, and they already know what you look like. (Alternately, misdirection is appropriate in some cases – oh look, my address is the police station :D)
4. Use your better judgement. When in doubt, ask mom/dad.
If you have actually established open communication with your kid(s), then they’ll trust you on these things, and you will in fact also be helping their social development in that they wont grow up to be creepy paranoid shut-ins with a social phobia. Equally, allowing your child freedom and trust in this manner builds a solid foundation in your relationship, and if they have problems, they will be far more likely to come to you instead of rebelling and going to their friend with the motorcycle.
Ultimately, the way that a person raises their children will determine how well equipped they are to take care of themselves when you’re not there. If you can achieve a balance between freedom and protection, you will be setting your child up to succeed.
(re-posted, apparently my original post with a more colorful term for “bored individual” needs to be moderated. lol )
@Debbie:
Yeah, read the article, though it didn’t address the pedophile “situation”. It provides a good general description of where this thing originated. Snopes.com didn’t have any real article on it (this is a relatively recent thing for them to cover), but they had a news link to here:
http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler/2010/12/05/cartoon-characters-on-facebook-is-the-facebook-cartoon-campaign-a-hoax/
The whole thing is probably some bored individual with too much free time showing a desperate need for a hobby.
P.S. The first page of that article is here: (same URL, just ending with page=1 instead, if you can imagine that! lol)
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/cartoon-characters-facebook-profile-pictures/story?id=12313096&page=1
If pedophiles wanted to look for prey on facebook, all they had to do was check out the Justin Bieber or Twilight fanpages… not campaign people to change their default pics. PedoFail
i believe children should be aloud to have facebook but not accept the freind requests of people they don’t know just to look good for e.g. 573 friends it is just stupid that children add people they don’t know. That is what parents should be looking out for there children adding people they don’t know
Yeah, thats one of the problems with facebook. By denying access completely, this forces a more dishonest approach to access a service that can have benefits if used under supervision. By “attaching” minor accounts to an adult account (the legal guardian/s), and applying a parental control feature (this wouldn’t be too hard to implement), parents would be able to screen friend/app/page approvals and such.
Changing the pictures back might not make a difference. I mean, smart pedophiles wouldn’t have a picture of themselves, then try and invite the children anyway. Changing your picture back is ineffective. Do you believe children would invite bugs bunny/potential pedophile, without actually knowing who it is? It’s possible. But what’s stopping the pedophile from having a picture of someone younger, less threating to the kids, or the parents monitoring their profile. What’s stopping pedophiles from having false accounts? Kids are still suseptable to online predators. Changing your profile pic back to your original won’t change that. Although it stops you from being accountable for anything that may go wrong because of it… Maybe, teach or kids to be more aware, like how we teach them to look bothways before crossing. Get it into their heads that the internet isn’t a perfectly safe place. Teach em really. Also, i think its a hoax. Seriously, is there a secret organisation of pedophiles that start a message thing, on a social networking site!!, and somehow manage to avoid being traced? Who started these messages about support against child abuse? Are they pedophiles? That should be easy for fb to track, shouldn’t it?
wanna know what doesn’t stop Child Abuse? pictures of cartoons. Want to know what CAN help stop it? Check out http://www.preventchildabuse.com , donate to them what you can and pass it along!!
I was leary of this from the begining because Nat’l Child Abuse Month is April – not December and when I researched this the origin was unknown….I honestly thought there maybe some virus connected to it and that everyones system could be infected…
The bottom line is WE ALL NEED TO BE CAREFUL….and lets face it – underage kids do have profiles on facebook….I know a few who are under the age of 10 and their accounts really need to be monitored by their parents…..
Parents need to be proactive not reactive in dealing with their children…..hopefully they will not regret just letting them have whatever they want …
Are you suggesting we should only be aware of child abuse for one month out of the year, and not any other time? =)
ok..everybody change their profile pics all the time whether its themselves or cartoons, so whats the difference? i mean, im against ppl who want to hurt children in any way but what does a profile pic got to do with it? hell, if we had to stop changing our profile pic bc of of something that would be stupid..it doesnt matter what your pic is, what matters is how ppl wants to abuse stuff like that and also not watching what they are doing…get a grip!!!! jjjeeesssshhhhhh
People wonder if the ‘changing your profile picture to a cartoon’ idea was a hoax. People also wonder if the ‘changing your profile picture back to normal’ was a hoax. Basically, here’s my take:
I saw a post that instructed ‘everyone’ to… change their profile picture to a cartoon character to promote child abuse awareness. I didn’t post any status on the matter, but I changed my picture to a cartoon for a couple of days. I never saw ‘proof’ that changing my profile picture was actually a designated, serious tactic for the awareness of child abuse. However, I did realize, instantly, that if everyone did this that it would become real, regardless.
Furthermore, when I saw the posts saying to remove the cartoon profile pictures to protect children, lol, I did that too. Mostly because I realized that the awareness portion of the act had been successful and, heck, why not change my profile picture back? I had made a cool picture for my profile just before I changed it to a cartoon and I was ready to put it up anyways.
The point is, everyone is quite aware of, not just child abuse, but also pedophiles. Thanks to this epidemic, hoax or not, awareness surely is at an all time high. I thought hard about my favorite cartoon character to post, and in doing so, all my happy memories from my childhood came flooding back. It helped me to remember what it was like to be a child again. I’m glad I posted the cartoon. I am glad I participated.
In close, I would like to add that parents are no more or less responsible for being involved in their children’s lives than they were before this Facebook thing occurred. If your minor child is getting abused or talking to pedophiles on Facebook, then stop it from happening anymore. If you don’t know, then find out! Get involved! That’s how this, no matter how negative some people want to make it, is going to result in a positive. That’s what we all want right? A positive outcome, regardless if it was a hoax or not!
Remember: You see what you choose to see and you’ll get what you put into it! God bless you all!
Wow, a lot of assholes on here. The person who was posting this question was simply asking if the rumor was true or not. There’s no need to call them an idiot or put them down.
Fuck you guys, your no high n mighty gods. Your just pricks with a keyboard. Stupid peices of shit…..
Now stand on your head and cluck like a chicken 3 times. You’ll get an email with a coupon from Chic-Fil-A for doing this. LOL
Well lookie here, I posted my real name. I might get it by a psychopathic killer now.
I think it’s fantastic that people out there are concern for child safety, but you must read an article the whole way through before posting things on a status. No children under the age of 13 should have an account. & people shouldn’t except people they don’t know as friend so pedophile can’t get into your face book & people whom want personal information on face book can have it there right/life if they don’t have
privacy activated it there problem. Amen
OMG everyone is coming down on Delores ok she made the mistake…I am sure she will correct it..throwing rocks won’t help.. if you want your kid to be safe then make sure you have no electronics in your house at all… Please no kids are allowed to have facebook the majority of face book is kids under 18. Making accounts under false pretends. I know that for a fact… Many on face book repost with out searching, but a good friend forward me this link and now i will do like everyone else that makes a mistake. Search the truth before posting nonsense on face book..
10,000,00th visitor huh? Missing a zero buddy?
Um, last time I checked, my 13/14 year olds don’t watch cartoons anymore…and neither does my 10 year old. So how would a cartoon profile pic lure my non cartoon watching teenager into anything? And besides, so many of the profile pics I have seen are old 80’s cartoons that you can’t even watch anymore. My 13/14 year olds have no clue who Rainbow Brite or Strawberry Shortcake are anyways. They are kids, but they aren’t stupid either. Majority of children out there are probably smarter than us adults when it comes to electronics. Hey…maybe kids started the whole thing and said to each other…”Let’s see if we can get 1/2 the population on Facebook scared!” That to me is more logical than pedophiles creating this!
Ok, I say let’s stop all of this right now. The whole thing makes no sense. If you put up Scooby Doo as your profile pic, how does that cause someone’s child to be at risk of being hunted down by some pedophile, unless you are a pedophile?
If your child has a facebook account, that is your business but making sure they do not accept any friends that they do not know would be the ONE and ONLY way to keep them from friending and talking to strangers….pedophile or not.
This all comes down to parental responsibility. If you post things on your facebook page that are not true because you did not take the time to research them first, that is your business but get off your high horse about saving the world from child predators and that your are a super parent. A real super parent would be monitoring their children’s Internet activities and would be able to trust that they are not doing something they shouldn’t be. If you can’t trust your children then you need to quit wasting your time on facebook and reconnect with them.
Everyone, including me, must have too much time on their hands because we have wasted time arguing over this topic which is not doing anyone a bit of good. Get off your computers like I am going to do and go do something worthwhile, like spending time with your children or making a difference in another way. Facebook posts are a lazy and ineffective way for people to pretend as though their posta are saving lives. Get out there and really do something to help!
This is for AMBER!!!
You do not need your address or phone number to sign yourself up. Maybe you should check your info before running your mouth!
Why doesn’t anyone recognize that whether you agree with the intent of changing on profile pic or not, that there might be unintended consequences.
Let’s not fools ourselves and thinks kids cannot have profiles on social networking sites if their told that their not allowed to. There are so many avenues to the internet (through friends, public internet access, etc…) that I’m never surprised when I see a facebook page of one my little brother’s friends.
Neither can we say that despite the good intentions of changing one’s profile pic, that pedophiles can use the same technique approach kids who aren’t being very discerning on who they allow to be their friends. Although we would expect our kids to know better, the reason we are often protective of them is because sometimes they don’t.
We must also consider that pedophiles will continue creating profiles whether or not there are cartoon picture profile pics anyway. Thus the issue of profile pics may be a moot point to begin with.
So where does all this leave us? Well, not anywhere really, but this is reflective of how morality is rarely convenient enough to be as black-and-white as we would like. There are many shades of gray and I think people need to consider that by respecting different perspectives.
All I Godda Say Is Ya’ll Are Dumb For Wasting Ur Time On This & U Hav No Lives If U Can Sit On Here For Hours Patroling Ur Comments!
The fuss started on a forum with someone complaining about facebook being FACEbook, not TOONbook. That turned into a big mudslinging fest between people telling the angry snarly people it was just for a few days and just for fun and/or for a good cause. Then that got people on a rampage about how posting a cartoon avatar could make any difference. More snarling and gnashing of teeth later, one of the people against cartoon avatars said people would feel stupid if pedophiles had come up with this idea. The next thing you know, this mess is circulating around facebook that the idea was generated by pedophiles, EVEN THOUGH the charity that organized the event is right there on facebook if anyone could be bothered to check the source.
you are doing a good job continue to improve on your weak part you are a very good writer.
Okay. So I have spent most of my breakfast being entertained by this link and all that everyone has had to say. I have put up a cartoon picture of G-Force as it does remind me of my childhood. I also put it up in response to the feed because to me that is what a child’s life should consist of “great memories”.
As for kids on facebook, definitely not needed. They should be outside building snow forts; or playing with their toys; doing science projects; reading a book; learning how to cook; taking care of their pets; painting or here’s a thought spending time with family and friends…
As for Delores…I think that she was feeling very protective at the time that she typed her thoughts into the computer. Which made her fingers type faster than her eyes could process. We’ve all been there. As for the part about having her phone number and address on facebook…did you ever think that she was using her own form of sarcasm? Trying to prove a point in her haste to get her thoughts out, she might have muddled that up a bit.
All I know from reading this article and from reading most of the posts is that we are all on the same side. We just want our kids to be safe. So on that note I am gonna leave my G-Force image up until tomorrow in honour of my childhood and in honour of our kids. Just think, with all this talk about one news feed on facebook…child abuse is one of the most talked about topics today! These cartoons did make us think and did make us remember that the world is not all about us as a single person but as a community. There is an old saying and it something like this…It takes a community to raise a child. And I was lucky enough to grow up in a community where everyone knew who you were and if you were getting into something that just didn’t seem right, your parents knew within minutes. And usually you were ushered home by one of your community members by your ear :). Respect one another and especially respect each others opinions. Listen and on the flip side of that, ya just might be heard!
Peace be still.
SSDD on Facebook. Remember at the first of the year the big uproar about Facebook charging? HHHmmmmm seems the “Date” came & went, and OMG Facebook is still FREE. Where there are people to listen and believe the Rumors will always be and run ramped through the masses. AAahhhhhh The Joys of the Internet.
The Pedophile Rumor probably came from one of those “Helicopter parents” (Look It Up) Aka Over Protective New Breed of Rambo Soccer Moms…… Just sayin… lol
Ooooh and My Phone Number is on my Facebook page. *I* Put it there because I KNOW everyone in my friends network. So simple solution, Do NOT Friend Strangers! lol
Haven’t you folks ever heard of the little boy who cried wolf? If you spend all your time posting silly warnings, when you post a warning about a real threat no one will listen.
I don’t know about the whole pedophile thing, but when I was doing it in November, the text read this:
Until the end of November, change your profile picture on Facebook to an image from a cartoon from your childhood. The goal? Not to have a single human image on Facebook, but a celebration of our collective childhood memories for the space of a week or two.
It had all the charitable meaning or nefarious purpose of an lolcat.
I think that they changed the profile pictures to cartoons because kids are more likely to accept them as friends…sad if that is true and I am most upset about the fact that everyone says keep your kids off facebook. I say keep off the pedo’s and keep your kids safe and wise to the fact not to give out personal information. Be safe all of you out there!!!
This just goes to show you how stupid people can be. And the worst part is…they get to vote!
WTF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KCNV9cehR8…..This may help clear up all the controversy,but PLEASE have a little more common and take your phone number and address off your face profile information! In my opinion you are just asking for trouble!!!
First of all I don’t care if any of you find mistakes on my grammar ,all I want to say is that it is a big mistake to put your address or phone # on any website that are view by strangers ,I see a lot people saying here that your kid shouldn’t have a FB on the first place and I do agree with them but can you actually prevent your kid/s from opening an acc with FB? you can have control of what goes on in your house and monitor everything that you child does inside your house but can you really check or monitor what your kid does outside your house? I know many people are gonna say “Yes I know what my kid does outside as well” I hate to break the news to you but you don’t!!! you may know some of the stuff your kid does outside but not everything ,most kids do what they are told not to do and thats common sense ,all you got is the education you provide to your kids and hope they go on the right track and don’t pick the wrong path ,so I agree also with that people that decided to post in theirs status about this whole support against child abuse being a lie ’cause there might not be proof of this being true but if it could bring more awareness to parents about the pedos then I would say it’s worth it ,and instead of criticizing other people ’cause not everybody are smart as others ,why don’t we just give them advise ? anyways I’m trying more realistic about this things .
kids are not allowed to make a facebook profile but that does not mean they are not on it. my ex (dumbass) made a facebook for my 4 year old by lying about her age. (he says it was to keep family up to date). i was livid contacted facebook, made all the necessary steps to remove the profile and facebook took it down within 4 hours. i applaud facebooks stand on underage profilesand their procedures when dealing with false accounts and abuse (courts took my side and now my daughter is not allowed on the internet at all)
Whether the idea was formed by pedophiles or not, the whole idea of raising awareness through Facebook is great, but the way they went about it wasn’t smart. Using cartoon characters (that have nothing to do with child ABUSE) is ridiculous. Why not put up a picture that has something to do with child abuse, like something that says “Stop Child Abuse”? It just makes more sense since half the people who changed their pictures to cartoon characters did it because they thought it was just about reminiscing about their childhood. That just goes to show that, while being semi-productive, there would have been a more logical way to go about it to raise even more awareness about the cause.
Quoted by….
Amber
THIS IS TOO ALL THE SLOW PEOPLE WHO BITCHED AT THE WOMAN ABOUT HAVING HER PHONE NUMBER AND ADDRESS ON HER PROFILE!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHEN SIGNING UP FOR FACEBOOK, THEY ASK YOU A LOT OF PERSONAL INFO FOR CREATING YOUR ACCOUNT. WE FILL IT OUT BECAUSE ITS A REQUIRED FIELD AND WE DONT THINK THAT THEY ARE GOING TO POST IT TO EVERYONE TO SEE. AND THE REASON WE DONT CATCH THAT ITS ON OUR PROFILE? BECAUSE ITS ON THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE INFO PART OF OUR PROFILES…
SOME OF YOU WHO BITCHED AT HER PROBABLY NEED TO GO TO YOUR OWN PROFILE, CLICK ON THE INFO TAB, AND SCROLL ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM… YOULL BE SURPRISED TO SEE SOME PERSONAL INFO YOU DIDNT WANT THE WORLD KNOWING… AND PHONE NUMBERS SHOW UP ON YOUR PROFILE WHEN YOU SIGN UP FOR FACEBOOK TEXTS…
SO CHECK YOURSELF OUT, AND STOP JUDGING.
JUST REMEMBER, EVERYONE HATES ASSHOLES, EVEN OTHER ASSHOLES.
BACK OFF
Dear Amber,
Before you spew off at the mouth and yell at everyone on this board; perhaps YOU should do some research yourself.
First off when signing up for a FB acct all they ask of you is your first and last name; your email addy; a password; your sex and finally your birthdate.
No where does it say it is mandatory that you provide a home address or a phone number in order to acquire the acct… those my dear are optional choices to fill out once you’ve already established the acct.. Frankly, anybody who fills that out is nuts. In your haste to make your point, you are these very ppl who pass on false info… GET IT RIGHT!!! Remember people FB is as safe as YOU make it!
How are you going to say shame on someone for being against pedophiles? So whoever posted this didn’t bother to look it up. There is a possibility that a pedophile could befriend someone who doesn’t have the intelligence to realize they don’t know that person using a picture of a cartoon character. The fact is, pedophiles have a terrible problem that could endanger unsuspecting children, so I for one have no problem making up a rumor that might help stupid kids be more aware about the decisions they make on social networks, especially if the alternative is allowing them to become victims of pedophilia.
So training kids to respond to made-up rumors and other lies is a good way to protect them from predators?
Good Lord is that ever stupid.
Basically according to this spam about pedophiles…EVERYONE who changed their picture is now OBVIOUSLY a pedophile lol
Pedophiles could have done this easier (just saying not approving this behavior) if they didnt advertise EVERYONE to change pictures. So that’s kinda dumb? Ya know?
This video was posted after everyone started changing their pictures but it gives a good message as to WHY we are changing our profile pictures to cutesy cartoons
Honestly, i’m with the people who are just taking it safe. Pedophiles do not just target small children. Not adding someone you don’t know is a possibility, but what if your subconscious tells you that you might know them, since they are adding you? It happens to a lot of people. Someone sends them a friend request and they add the person simply because they think that they might know them. So there is no perfect way to keep pedophiles away. Their mind is set once they’ve picked a target, and some will go to extreme measures to get what they want. So in order to get rid of the problem, you need to get rid of the pedophile. For those who are speaking against the mother trying to protect her child, don’t speak out against something until you know what it’s like. I’m gonna go ahead and say that you do not have a child. Either way, don’t tell this mother what not to do and question why she does it. You are just playing god then by taking away her freewill and free choice to do as she pleases. She has a profile for her kid and addresses on their for hew own reasons. That is her business. There is nothing wrong with putting your address on your public profile, because like you all said, you can choose who to add as a friend.
It is more dangerous for a young child to have their own picture on FB than a cartoon. Esp some of the provocative pictures that young kids put up to try to make themselves look older…if a pedophile is looking for a kid on FB, it is much easier to try to find a picture of a child than to figure out how old the person is in the Bugs Bunny profile!
I was abused for ten plus years by my father and brother.
CPS has been called, and all of that trauma has settled.
I’m 16 now and live with only my dad, the one who beat my brother & me all those years. I’m still afraid one day he’ll hit me and he won’t stop.
Almost all my Facebook friends changed their default to a cartoon character. But, if they knew about anything that has happened to me, they would. not. care.
I changed to a cartoon character so they wouldn’t notice.
I also changed it because it felt good to think that it was a slight possibility that someone could care about it.
It seems to me like parents are a bunch of reactionarily idiot people.
And you wonder why people who aren’t pedophiles get screwed by the laws. As long as your precious sprog are protected, right? Heaven forbid you fucks actually teach your kids right from wrong, and monitor your fucking 10 year olds on facebook instead of leaving them to run around unhindered online while you fucking do your nails locked up in your fucking bedrooms.
You know how to protect your kids from internet pedos? KEEP THEM THE HELL OFF FACEBOOK.
Okay, so the author of this post/article may be right on the things he/she said, however, I think it really is up to the people who read the status to be the judge of whether or not they think may be real or not. Even if it’s not true, everyone should be able to be the judge of what they want to put up as their profile pictures. If they want to change their profile pictures back to their usual ones, let them do it. There’s no need to criticize those who put those statuses up that may cause others to change their profile pictures back to normal. Let them put it up if they want, regardless if it being true or not.
The purpose of this whole cartoon trend is to promote Child Abuse Awareness, which is definitely a good thing to do. Those who post those statuses are just being on the safe side, even if it’s not true. Sure, posting our original real pictures back as the profile picture may probably increases the chances for a “pedophile” to see what we really look like, but seriously, how many of us on Facebook are really children? -.-” Yes, Facebook does have an age restriction as to how old you have to be to make an account, but it’s the internet, people lie here and there about their age to get into websites they want to look at and/or make accounts for websites they want to join in. And yes, people can always decline friend invites, but children or young teenagers have the mindset that they might know the person or that those who add random people are just being friendly and want to be friends (Facebook IS about social networking), so in the end they all become friends without knowing that one party may or may not be a pedophile. That’s why those statuses are posted up, even without evidence to support it, to show that pedophiles are indeed out there and we should all be careful.
Those who post the statuses that say “post this on your status to…blah blah blah” usually wouldn’t go looking up whether or not there is back up information or news on it. Honestly, who has the time to go and search for all that, when all they would want to do is post a status like that? Just because they post such a status, it doesn’t mean they don’t support Child Abuse Awareness. The whole point of this profile picture trend is to promote Child Abuse Awareness, but the who point of the statuses is probably to promote Pedophilia Awareness on the Internet. So Most, if not all, who post such statuses have the mindset that pedophiles will go after those whose profiles have a cartoon picture, mainly because those who make a new Facebook account usually would put some kind of cartoon picture first as a holder, before they put their real life pictures up.
In any case, there’s no right or wrong in putting up the statuses or putting up the pictures. Both have some kind of purpose it wanted to serve and it completed its goal. At least there are people who changed their profile pictures to a cartoon from their childhood for a little while. At least that’s something.
honesstly ii dont even knoe why ppl made up succh a thing ii watcchd reruns of the news,the reporter sayd thttt they had ppl getting arrestted for beatiing their cchildren,they sayd nothing aboout pedophiles. But theres quite weiird things also happeniing:yesterday this guy added me & my friiend he was telling us weiird thiings very weird. i didnt knoe him and he had posted on the wall of the girls he had added and the same thing he sayd to all of us was ; ‘ola como esta'(which means “hi how are you) .so ii asked him “do ii knoe u” and he sayd ” no” then we went off sayiing a bunch of weird thiings.. it was weirrd & scary i have nothing displayed on my profile no info such as telephone numbers or any adresses,so ii was glad ii diddnt have any info( ii deletted him asap & ii also told my friend to delete him , idk jus everythng iis very odd iin a way..ill post up some videos of things thtt haave me believing what theyr saying in the news about this & also ill post up what has me believiing what ppl are sayiing…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdSD2eq49S8 what the reporters are saying) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI2L8pcXwL0 whatt ppl are saying)
Oh my goodness… hard to believe how much is caused by putting a cartoon pic on your profile… I had one even before this thing started and I don’t accept people who are unknown to me or to someone I do know…
Back to the main point which is and should be prevention of child abuse! Hands up if there is anyone who doesn’t support this!
Maybe organisations that deal with prevention of child abuse could use this op too to promote themselves to people who ahve expressed wish to help such a cause?
Ok to all who seem to have nothing better to do then complain about personal info! I was molesteded growing up and regardless of my upbringing I will be damned if anyone will be given the chance to do that crap to my kids! Child abusers are capable of getting to your children one way or another! It is a matter of how we choose to protect them from them! My gaurd is always up and I will do anything to protect my boys!
Kristie, dear…
Many us of have been molested, raped, and harmed. I am ashamed that you and I are in that same category.
Wow…. so many replies, so little coherency…. and I know spell-checker has a default of on, so why don’t people use it? – Maybe because they would need to engage their brains, just like using the caps-lock key.
How many of you look for the “Any” key?
Sorry if this sounds bitter, but it seems the ones that shout loudest about protecting their children are the ones that should have been removed from the gene pool.
Want to protect your children? EDUCATE them! Don’t let them drown in your own little cess pit of ignorance and prejudice.
Ok….I didn’t even get through the first page of comments, and I’m sorry….there is a HUGE point being missed here. Yes, it is true that Facebook and Myspace etc. are in fact social networking sites. Yes, it is true that people meet for the first time on these sites. But honestly, if you are a social person you are out in the real world meeting new people who THEN possibly join your Facebook. If you are relying on these social sites to MEET people, that in itself is unsafe. These lessons should be taught to our children, making their internet usage safer by proxy. Both my 14 year old daughter and my 17 year old son have social sites, all their friends are either school friends or family, we have the passwords and use them as we see fit, and we are active in their lives. Stop using the computer/TV/iphone as a babysitter because the BEST defense against predators is interaction with your family. I agree that personal information should never be posted ANYWHERE online (the internet is a fishbowl to hackers, they see all) and to be even safer, it would only make sense to add friends that you ALREADY KNOW. That way any information that they do happen to have access to is safer than if you have 485 “friends” you don’t know looking at all your personals. Common sense people, it’s the holidays, I’m sure there is a sale on it somewhere.
I have never seen so many mean-spirited and nasty people in all my life! You should ALL be ashamed of yourselves (especially the IDIOT who wrote this blog to begin with) for “beating up” on that mom who stated she has her number and address on her site Yes, I DO agree THAT is a bad idea but to attack her as you heartless people have done is disgusting. Lord, help you all for your BLACK, HATEFUL hearts!
What does being black have to do with it?
Regardless of who originated this campaign, it is completely unfair to insult those who are a little worried about the possibilities. There are many children between the ages of 8 and 12 who have Facebook, so to say that Facebook is only teenagers and adults is completely untrue. I believe that Facebook does restrict who can have an account by only allowing members to make an account if they are over a certain age. However, children merely change their birth year in order to get an account. I know that there are children on Facebook because I have a 12 year old sister who has Facebook along with over 100 of her friends who are her own age. They have all had Facebook for at least a year, and some for even longer. People believe that children are more likely to accept friend requests from others who have cartoon pictures as their profile picture. Not only this, but based on the cartoon that an individual has as their profile picture you can tell around which age they are. For example, a 25 year old is not going to have the Teletubbies as their profile picture because this would not be their favourite childhood cartoon. The Teletubbies could be the favourite childhood cartoon of someone who is now around age 10. This could potentially allow pedophiles to decide someone’s age, even if they have their security settings blocked so that strangers cannot access information such as their birthdate. For those of you who state that parents must monitor their children’s internet use more closely, be realistic. It is not possible for a parent who works, and has other children, to constantly be watching each child. Parents are busy, and while it is absolutely necessary that each child on the internet is reminded on a regular basis of internet safety, it is not possible for parents to seclude their child completely from any harm that pedophiles could have on their child. While this may only be a rumour, I believe that those who are worrying about this have legitimate cause. There is really no proof either way as to whether this is a rumour or not. The organizations who are reported as having started this campaign have admitted that it was not in fact them who started it. Who knows what the truth is, but either way, don’t insult parents who are merely concerned for their children’s safety.
The research to get the facts behind this took me less time than it took to read your post.
We are NOT insulting those who are worried about the possibilities, we are however worried about the children of those people who accept wild rumours as truth without any thought about their probability. After all, it’s true that the Nigerian Minister of Financial Affairs may want to transfer $25, 000,000,000 into my bank account – but its not very likely is it?
There is a reason Facebook restricts accounts to those over 14 years of age, in that children younger than that are those most at risk from predators. I don’t care if you know loads of children between 8 and 12 who have Facebook accounts, I do care however that you are not talking to the parents of these children and making them aware that they are allowing those children to be vulnerable!
Just because one idiot does something does not make it a good idea, and saying “everybody does it” is an even worse idea – it means YOU have not given any thought to the matter.
As for steve, you are worried about the children of those parents who accept wild rumours as truth? How about those who did change their profile picture thinking that it was for child abuse awareness? Do you think that they researched this fact before changing their profile picture in the first place? No, they didn’t, hence the fact that there is now such a fiasco about whether or not it was originally pedophiles who came up with this idea. So to say that those who reacted to such an accusation by simply changing their facebook status is any different than those who changed their profile picture would be foolish. There is simply no difference. In both situations, people acted without researching. There is no research supporting either side seeing as the foundations listed have admitted that they did not originate this campaign. Your arguments about talking to the parents of these children who have facebook is simply unrealistic. Having facebook at that young age is a trend, just like having cell phones. It is a fact that we are simply going to have to live with and attempt to educate the children on internet safety. Children having facebook is not going to change, and any thoughts of this are simply naive.
Your an idiot. You way over analyze, since when does posting facebook status’s mean we have to research what we say? “Hey guys i’m going to the beach” k i changed my mind and never went to the beach oh my god I have alerted my face book friends on something that never happened what am I going to do. Relax, I can pretty much guarentee you this whole thing didn’t change ANYTHING besides bring back cartoon memories as a kid and a little facebook rumor. Who cares if its true or not its not a big deal. Not worth the time of writing an article on it, and hardly worth the time writing a comment on it.
It’s ironic that you attempted to insult me and used poor grammar in doing so. It’s actually you’re* an idiot, nice try though. If it is true then yes there is reason enough for some to worry. Furthermore, who are you to tell parents when they should and should not be worried about the safety of their own child? If this article is not worth commenting on, take your rudeness elsewhere. Good day!
Hello!
I am not sure about any connection with paedophiles, or which news program the reports were on, BUT, could you please pass on these links for reporting Internet or local child abuse.
Add more if you know any!
Child Protection
http://www.protect.org/
http://www.childabuseprevention.org/
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PublicHomeServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US
Reporting any internet or local abuse of Children
http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpps/entertainment/cartoon-characters-become-facebook-profile-pics-dpgoh-20101206-fc_10953205
Reporting any internet abuse in the UK
http://www.iwf.org.uk/ The Internet Watch Foundation
Thanks,
Keith.
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I am truely finding it amazing how we went from Pedophiles to improper spelling and grammar! I think alot of people lost sight of the real issue here. Pedophiles! I don’t know who started it or why it started but I do know Pedophiles are every where regardless of how we spell or how we use grammar. They maybe on the internet, in your school, church or even your own home. I don’t care if it’s fact or fake at least there is a warning out there. I am not saying a Pedophile should be judged all the time but from my experience and knowledge of them they will never change, don’t want to change or can’t change! So the real issue isn’t if you can spell or use proper grammar but how to keep Pedophiles from you, your children and any one who needs to be protected from them!
If you’re going to have a facebook page and post all your information on your profile, then obviously you’re not mature enough to have a facebook page in the first place. Anything is possible now a days, and you can never be too safe. I can garentee I would never let my kids post anything person on their profiles. If they have something i disaprove of, it get’s removed, if not, then they lose their computers. Simple as that.
Have anyone of you ever heard of Canada 411…
your name, address and phone number have been in phone books and on the internet since the beginning of time.
Okay guys clear up, who cares about if it’s a fraud?
Don’t you yourselves think it’s such one fun thing to do?
You put a cartoon as your profile picture, it DOESN’T HURT you or anything does it? Besides, it does have a certain impact to the world ain’t it? Teenagers and even adults around the world they do the same thing that they’ve probably never done it in their entire lives. It wasn’t only on North America news, it was also board-casted all over the world. So people, really, it doesn’t matter if it’s real or not, as long as it is harmless and does not contain inappropriate/negative influence. Eventually, it’s your decision to decide rather put a cartoon on or not.
…just going to copy and paste my argument from my page
the people simply read something without thinking about the logic of the statement and feel enrage but it doesn’t really make sense to me, if you already know better then not to add strangers then you continue to know regardless if someone with a cartoon pic tries to add you. Like someone pointed one earlier, with all us in cartoon pic who knows better will only confuse the so call pedo. group
and even if it is true, what did we lose in the fraud? The people who add mindlessly will be so regardless. Intent may be bad, but the outcome: Awareness
I will give the people who argue how can this help, a point. But think about this, the …people who already are actively helping are already doing so before the event but this brought millions into awareness stage now, not everyone will get to the helping stage but if even 5% more ppl who went from no0t thinking about it to thinking about, actually start to something. Is at least 50K more helping hands..
New stuff add:
The problem is, like everyone else stated, is FEAR, parents act without thinking as soon they read it was create by pedophiles. I really don’t think it make sense for them to do it. But we can’t blame people for being overprotect however we can blame them for being so near-sight, think about how would pedophiles benefit from this? Logically it make no sense but even if it true, re-read my earlier statement
Argument about information on fb:
Keeping up information like your address and cell to keep in contact? Really, that your point?? If they were so important to keep in contact in the first and your already fb friends, they should already have it, if not, they can message you if they want and the information will not spread. I don’t even put up my real birthday and not even a year of my birth on fb. If we really were friends, you would already know that’s not my birthday but is somehow I got hack or the wrong person saw my fb. Good luck finding my information, b/c none of it is real.
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Its a stupid idea anyway. People should change their profile pic to a sheep instead.
These arguements are going round in circles and I think people are misunderstanding what is going on, even the people writing these articles. here’s my attempt to clear it up.
Yes, Pedos DO use the technique of ‘cartoon profile pictures’ to lure young kids in as friends.
Yes, a GROUP started a ‘cartoon profile picture scheme’ to raise awareness of child abuse
No, the GROP was ot made up of Pedos, it was an actual charity
The GROUP that started the scheme had no idea pedos used this technique. The fact that Pedos used this technique was then pointed out.
However, people got their wires crossed, and with the help of ‘Chinese Whispers’, people began to believe that pedos started the whole trend of ‘cartoon profile picture scheme’.
A new day & oh look a new copy & paste as your status.
Looks like spam, “sniff sniff” smells like spam
WHY it’s must be spam.
Now I must go & spam my friends with a new copy & paste
It really doesn’t matter Kristie .. these folks here are just making no sense, they are not even interested on what the question was..
O, Christus! Save me, o Christ! For I seek Your guiding hand! Your love is eternal. And I am a sinner. O, God, love me! Christ, take me!
This Facebook is bad! A face that has become a book is bad. A face must be like a warm and strong heart, forgiving and always loving! Down with the facebook!
I’m writing from Turkey. I like your writings.
Love learning about this…gives me inspiration when I hit walls and plateaus…sometimes I have to let go and not try to control everything
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Lovin’ this blog post! Thanks for all the news updates.
It’s things like this that make me loathe people, when did independent thought go out the window? Facebook and things of the like do nothing but precipitate the hive mind mentality in the world.
People are idiots. Seriously.
I think someone should start a viral update stating
“The group telling everyone to change their pictures back from cartoons because the group was started by pedophiles was actually started by pedophiles because it made their job harder because everyone had cartoon pics on their profile and now they didn’t know who the hell were kids or not, so change them back to cartoons because in all honesty, your child is SAFER having a cartoon as their profile pic than their own damn picture you ignorrant parent!”
Sound good?
hi all
look i dont realy care who did this shit or wat ever its irritating having idiots complain on either side of the bench about this crap. ill tell u a true story that i lived through. im 18 and have 3month old daughter now for u parents out there u should no the joys of birth and raising a child but as overwhelming as it is for some for my own flesh and blood my biological father that wasnt enough at the age of 5 my father decided i was old enough to start touching and playing with me, i told my mum and she confunted him as any parent would in the same situation… my father just cried and kept saying how could i do something like that to my daughter id kill anyone if theyd destroy my daughter in that way and so on …..so it stopped for a few yrs next thing u no we moved to smithfield in cairns qld and it started again except worse he would force me to suck him off and rape me to the point i would bleed for days but i was to scared to tell anyone it got to the point wher i had had enough abd i decided to tell he knew some how and ended up strangling me till i past out and was gasping for air and so once again it stopped he then started getting my sister ready for it but he relized hed get busted so back onto me he went iwas in grade 7 just got my periods for the first time wen my father forced me to have intercourse with him i was lucky that he broke up with my mother at the end of that yr and that my sister had witnessed it and my best friend that wen it went to court he was found guilty by all the jury members….. istill t this day have his friends come up to me andask if s truebecause he hid thatside of him very well and non of hi frends can comprehend it which i am certain alot of u wont be able to too…….but it is true he was sentenced in july 2005 and gets out in 4yrs time he was charged with 2 counts of rape 8yrs 1 count of indecent treatment of a child under 16 2yrs and 1 count of maintaining a sexual relationship with a child 9yrs all runnng at the same time …….. so for me a pedifile could be any parent on this list if myown father can do it wat says one of u could be just the same u always hear storys ofstep parents of fam friend all that crap u never expect blood could do it but they are te most demolishing types of peds and rapest around i nowhave post dramatic stress disorder where i relive it everytime i go to sleep and am now very wary of everyone in my life even my husband as a parent unfortunatly there is nothing wecan do except try to pretect them from ppl like this however no amount ofpretection is ever going to be enough this is a very stupid and irritating topic wen idiots like u all go arund and complain wen u havent been through the depths of abuse to my extend or to the extent of ppl worse of then me as far asim concerned u just need o be wary and do wats right for ur kids instead of complaining online about stuff uve never witnessed first hand those of u that have will or should understand cause till uve lived it ur another idiot trying to be smart and think u no or have an idea ora fkn comment on shit that is completely oblivious to u so stop winging and look after ur familys an protect them to ur best abilitys from these ppl cause thats all u can do instead of winge and bith and put ppl down on this fkn site ur met to be adults start fkn acting like one ur not in fkn high school anymore !!!!!
sorry if theres spelling mistakes but u all pissd me of wen i saw the comments on this page !!!!
So, from your experience of child abuse when you were a child yourself, that makes spreading lies and rumors around without looking up the facts, justified? You can protect your children in a SMART WAY by refusing to redistribute information you’ve received before you look it up.
Say for instance your neighbor hears word that you, yourself, use illegal drugs. Without even asking you, would it be okay if your neighbor told the police and any of your employers and all of your co-workers that you do drugs? That neighbor doesn’t even need to ask you if you do, just the fact that you MIGHT or MIGHT NOT is enough to make sure everyone is safe and that your kids are taken by CPS because drug-using parents shouldn’t be in the care of children. You’re basically saying that since you want to protect your children, that’s it’s perfectly fine to just spread around complete speculation without even asking if the message is true, just like the lying neighbor.
no its a concern yes but as far as im concerned if u see shit or hear it u get the facts first because it means nothing without facts and u o take precautions wen u do find out about things like this im jst saying wether its true or not there is no 100% garentee u can protect ur kids from ppl like this and that instead of bitching on here wen no one is 100% certain about it being true or not wen the facs come trough then fine bitch but if they dont then take precautions im guessing ur anoter one of those ppl who has never lived through anything like my experieces so as far as im concerne ur just another idiot like the rest of the councillors. stop winging get the facts first and look after ur familys thi is such a fkn annoying topic wen ur talng to idiots like u…. fkn u guys annoy me
I take it English is not your first language. Perhaps Google can help you translate a little better because it is near impossible to understand anything you are saying and takes away from any pertinence you may have to add to the conversation.
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nice blog! thanks for the help.
I personally think that Parents of children should take a lot of care now a days to look after their children’s online activities.
I was suggested this blog via my cousin. I’m now not sure whether this put up is written via him as no one else understand such designated approximately my trouble. You’re wonderful!
Thank you!
Excellent site. I think there is a dilemma on only portion of?