Only You Kids Can See the Secret Messages

Posted on by cynthiachang0109

BY: Qianwen Zhang

One day, when I was wandering on Twitter, one of the tweets caught my eyes. It introduced a Canadian movie called Aurore and said it was definitely worth watching and inspiring. Out of curiosity, I watched the 2005 biographic drama movie about the 10-year-old girl, Aurore Gagnon, who was abused to death by her stepmother.  I almost cried for half of the movie and felt extremely sorry about the poor little girl. The indifferent people and hypocritical pastor deeply hurt my feelings. When Aurore was found dying in the dark and shabby attic, I even wanted to climb into the movie and beat the crap out of her stepmother. In the later time, no matter how harsh the punishment was sent to her stepmother, it would never bring back this little girl’s life and let her have happiness in childhood again. I was sad for that whole day and thinking about whether we really can afford to walk away saying the child abuse is none of our business?

My answer is no. At least I cannot afford such pain, even if it’s neither me nor my children being abused. Probably because of the maternal instinct, though I am not a mother yet, I can’t stand any kind of abuse towards kids. If everyone is indifferent and cold about kids out there being abused, saying “well, that’s not my kids, it’s their family’s issue…none of my business…” as the excuse, who would save your kids from abuse if you were unfortunately gone?  NO ONE.

Image

Every year more than 3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States involving more than 6 million children, according to the Childhelp organization whose aims are prevention and treatment of child abuse. They also state that about 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse; children who experience child abuse & neglect are about 9 times more likely to become involved in criminal activity; what’s more, the abused children are more likely to experience teenage pregnancy, psychological disorder, drug abuse. Tons of social issues are raised by the child abuse, and the sympathy and weep for the abused children only cannot solve the problem at all. We have to do something more concrete and helpful to protect those abused kids.

One way is to apply innovation into stopping child abuse. A Spanish foundation, Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk (ANAR), has joined forces with an advertisement agency, the Grey Group Spain, to produce an innovative campaign aimed at the prevention of child abuse. The savvy ad, which is up on the streets of Spain displays two messages, one that is only visible to children and the other to adults.Using a special kind of printing called lenticular printing – which is also used for 3D displays – the images of the ad are based on the angle that they are viewed from.

Image

Image

To adults, the ad will appear with an image of a normal, though seemingly sad young boy with a simple but powerful message, “Sometimes child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.” To children however, or those who are below 4 feet 5 inches in height, they will be able to see an image of a child who has been beaten and bruised. The message is a lot more direct and provides heartfelt instructions, “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you,” along with the foundation’s phone number.

This innovation is awesome!  But how do the kids know that what they see is different from what the adults see? What if they think their abusers can also see the help hotlines and therefore be too scared to call for help? What if the abused kids don’t have available access to phones and make safe calls for help? What if the adult abusers find out the secret messages hidden below, and they just take the kids to bypass the ads? Although there are still a bunch of questions about the technology applied in this kind of advertisement, it still worth trying and spreading it to all kinds of advertisements on the street. The more messages were sent out to them, the more likely they would reach us for help. Technology and innovation really can change people’s life and make it a better world for all of us to live in.

Although I was never being abused in my childhood and had a happy innocent time back then, I still can clearly remember the fear of darkness and loneliness when my mom was in another city pursuing her master degree and my dad took care of me alone. Even if this kind of memory lasts long, I have no doubt that the child abuse will be remembered more vividly by the unfortunate children and have more severe future consequences both for themselves and for the society.

Applying modern technology and innovation to address longstanding social problems might make a difference, as long as we, as part of the society, care more about each other and stretch our hands out for those who really need help.

Resources:

1. child abuse national statistics, http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics

2. Child Abuse Ad Uses Lenticular Tech to Deliver Hidden Messages, http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2266535/innovative-child-abuse-ad-delivers-hidden-message

Changing your world view

Posted on by anasofiavazqueztrejo

By: Ana Vazquez-Trejo

After listening to Terry Irwin and her call “To change our world view” I wanted to write about changing my worldview. This is a recommendation to Policy makers/designers to think creatively and to open their minds to new solutions. I have identified some posing questions at the end. to see pictures: http://anasofia313.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/2/

Public Policy requires design, leadership, creativity, and innovation. Design requires the creator to be imaginative and to think about their product or policy. If designer is building something to be used by people, the designer has to put him or her self in the shoes of the people he or she is designing for. In other words, the designer must be inclusive. The designer must think of whom the product or policy is being created for. The designer is continuously analyzing what situations the user will encounter.

Today, governments across the world like Australia are using design to shape policy, simply because there is a need. The guardian news source states that there is “the need to innovate with fewer resources, provide more personalised services on a larger scale,[1]” for the growing masses of people so that governments can service their people. Therefore, design is the future of the policy making process.

In order for design to be effective and used correctly, a designer, must open his or her eyes to the realm of possibilities that can become a solution to a social problem. When designing a solution, there should be limitless ideas considered before narrowing in on a single idea. This is innovative in that it is so different from the usual rules and boundaries that regulate the way we think. Hence, when it comes to being a designer changing your worldview is key to making innovative policy.[2]

Changing our worldview is one of the hardest things to do. Since we were children, we have grown up with our own customs, traditions, and habits. We were taught from a young age about religion or no religion, hygiene, customs, traditions. Therefore, our upbringing makes up who we are, but we can change and develop ourselves to become more curious, reflective and innovative.

Our upbringing reflects how we think and how we handle situations in our lives. We have biased opinions about the “right” way to do certain things. When we are children, we have no conception of right or wrong. The mind of a child has no preconceived notions. In fact parents instill thoughts into their children.

For example, if you tell a child for the first time in their life to go and line up the shoes next to the door[3], it looks like this:

[4]shoes at door

That child will literally make a line of shoes in front of the door.

This is how our creativity is inhibited. Another example is telling a child they must eat half of their half dog before they can leave the table. You and I would think half a hotdog means eating it like this:

[5]half hot dog

but a child would think of it like this:

[6]child hot dog

This is an example of how our imagination and creativity has been molded. In order to go back to the way we were as children, to think creatively without any preconceived notions. We have to be inclusive. According to the relational leadership model, being a leader is a process that involves being inclusive, purposeful, empowering, and being ethical. [7]

relational leadership model

We must all undergo a process to continuously improve ourselves. This does not mean improving ourselves physically, it means improving ourselves mentally. It means checking our thoughts and making sure that they are generally positive, that our actions are going to benefit us and the people around us. In the words of Google “don’t be evil.” For example, when it comes to recycling. You could easily just throw away that plastic Aquafina bottle into the regular trashcan. You will not have to go out of your way to find a recycle bin and you won’t have to carry around the bottle when it is empty. However, if you think about the possible consequences of that bottle ending up in a landfill and not decomposing for ten years, or the chances the bottle ends up in the ocean, you begin to become compassionate and conscientious of the world around you.

If you are a policy creator, ask yourself these things when you are designing:

Will this policy empower someone?

What is the purpose of this design?

Is this policy ethical?

Is this policy inclusive?

We must be leaders by asking questions, thinking creatively, and reflect on what others value. This process will help design policy that will benefit our future.  What do you think? Can we make new policy that will improve the lives of others? Or are we doing things the right way already? Is our current process the only way to get things passed through the system(government)? Can we incorporate design into government?