About

Facebook Cartoon Profile Picture Week is a social networking trend which involves updating one's Facebook profile picture with an image of his/her favorite cartoon character from childhood. Although individual practice of using cartoon avatars as profile pic may be seen as a common behavioral pattern, recent upsurge in frequency of profile change has apparently transformed into an international campaign to raise awareness for child abuse.

Origin

The entry point of the original status update may have come from Facebook users in Greece and Cyprus:

Aπό 16 έως 20 Νοέμβρη ας αλλάξουμε όλοι τις φωτογραφίες των προφίλ μας, αντικαθιστώντας τις με κάποια φωτογραφία ήρωα των παιδικών μας χρόνων. Σκοπός αυτού του παιχνιδιού είναι να μην υπάρχει ανθρώπινη φωτογραφία για λίγες μέρες στο Facebook

Rough Translation in English:

From the 16th to the 20th of November, we shall change our profile pictures to our favourite cartoon characters. The purpose of this game is to remove all photos of human for a few days from Facebook.

Spread

The fad began to spread within days of the original message.

The Cartoon Network created a Facebook event page for ""Choose a Cartoon Character as Your Profile Picture for a Week" from Nov. 21st to Nov. 28th, 2010.

Beginning on December 3rd, the trend somehow took on a new meaning as an effort of anti-child abuse campaign, reported by ABC News, Gawker and other blog / media outlets:

In support of anti-child violence, change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood. Until Monday Dec. 6, there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. Join the fight against CHILD ABUSE. Invite your friends to do the same.

Reaction

After morphing into an anti-child abuse meme, some people began trolling with images of Bart Simpson being choked, and even Pedobear:

Even absurd speculations in regard to "the hidden agenda" behind the Facebook profile phenomenon: