Child's Play

As a social worker, I worry about the safety of children. The Stopitnow organization is trying to get the word out about sexual predators with an advertising campaign on roadside billboards. Sexual predators target a vulnerable population. They exploit innocence. They almost irreparably tarnish new silverwared souls. While I wholeheartedly embrace the Stopitnow cause, I must criticize their choice of advertising.

Pictured is one in a series of billboards sponsored by the Stopitnow organization. This advertisement denounces children’s play. Isn’t the issue overstated and a mixed message at best? For every child forewarned and educated about sexual abuse another child may become fear mongered and foreclose on playtime. These billboards are warning signs in the most troubling sense of the word. The messaging littering these billboards makes not for an even playing field.

I wonder if just as much harm as good is being accomplished. Why not have a split billboard reinforcing that child’s play is good and the other half of the billboard hinting at the rare danger? Examine the headline of this particular billboard. Hide and Seek is about fear and child abuse. I never earned a college degree in marketing but wouldn’t this be less pointed: Hide and Seek…Parents Should Stay on the Lookout. In a small font run a parenthesized tag line effecting that (Abusers often use child’s play for exploitation.)

If there is an anti-defamation league for children in existence, I would like to refer this case. For every grandparent innocently playing pretend games with their grandchild, for every babysitter that is deriving imaginative play from boredom, for every Big Brother that has taken time out of their lives to make a difference in someone else’s life, your efforts are neither represented or appreciated in this advertising campaign. For every literate child who sees one of these disturbing billboards, children’s play is not always to be feared.

Advertising that child's play is all together bad is not all together such a good idea either. Somebody should Stopitnow before it is too late.