ARTICLES: Could China be an example of social media for child rights advocacy?

Interesting article on child rights and social media in China from Dale Rutstein, UNICEF China:

"Soon after I arrived in China the national obsession with “weibo” popped up all around me. It was explained as “twitter on steroids” – the 140 character limit effectively meant each post could convey the equivalent of 140 words. The UNICEF China office started a weibo account in late 2010. I didn’t give it much thought until it exploded in February 2011.

An academic started a social media campaign to reunite “abducted” children with their parents. He called for the public to snap pictures of “street children” and post them on weibo. It seemed like a simple crowd sourcing solution to a serious problem, and it proved extremely compelling to Chinese “netizens.” Soon thousands of children’s images flooded the internet."

full article