No man is an island and indeed human beings were not made to live alone. It cannot be possible and it’s not even beneficial. Every now and then, we all need help, but sometimes a larger crowd is needed to attain the help necessary.
Crowdfunding has always been a thing. It involves raising money for projects from a large group of people usually online. In recent times, it’s become almost impossible to go a day without seeing some ad or video on Twitter or Facebook or even Instagram asking for a contribution towards a variety of issues.
Health, business, funerals, weddings, just about anything you can think of, if an individual does not have the means to handle cost then the next step would be to crowdfund.
Social media houses billions of people all over the world and the internet is faster now than ever. Within a second, one’s cry for help would have reached a million people already. There’s no wrong in crowdfunding, but when children are used as the front then it becomes a problem.
Crowdfunding has become so popular that just about anyone sets up a GoFundMe account and puts it out. Sometimes, the cry for help could be a scam. What happens when an innocent child is used for a scam and everyone finds out? Of course, they would be livid, but that child’s image and reputation would go down with it.
Even if it’s true that the said child needs help, it’s highly wrong and unsympathetic to put the child through that. Psychologically, the backlash would affect them. It may not happen that instant, but the internet never forgets. The child may grow up and would now be seeing that.
Assuming they don’t even see it, there’s about a 60% chance that someone would keep it and remind them when they are older.
Recently, a video had been circulating on social media, at some point, it even popped up as an advert. It was a little girl who had been diagnosed with cancer and I was crying for help as she did not want to die. The video was sad and would have definitely moved people to contribute toward the child’s betterment.
However, it was later made known that it may have been a scam. Now there’s no verdict on that, but one can only imagine how this little girl’s mental health would be affected by this.
It is highly wrong and immoral of any adult to put a child in pain through the painful process of showing their pain to the world. They are not mentally ready for that.
When scammers are found out, the backlash they receive online is enough to destroy any reputation they may have and more, when a child is involved? Maybe some people would be calm and just ignore, but there are some who do not care and would include the children in the backlash.
There are ethics when it comes to crowdfunding. Something should not be done or said. GoFundMe can pull down accounts once they realize that the account holder is not abiding by rules.
The innocence of children must be preserved till they get to the point where the world swallows them in. Using them as the face of a crowdfunding project no matter how legitimate it is, is just setting them up for any ridicule trolls the internet can throw at them and that doesn’t help anyone.
