Images of three-year-old Alan Kurdi were shared by media outlets and charities the world over with varying degrees of censorship and held up as a fetish, as an example of how other people could relate to strangers and foreigners dying in a country that was not their own.
Though many editors claim they were trying to shock the world into action, their papers had begun to relegate the struggle of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers to the lesser news pages, while other news and celebrity gossip raked in the readership.
Meanwhile, starving babies and crying children have been strategically deployed in PR and charity material seeking public sympathy and support for a long time in what has become known in the industry as ‘aid porn’.
As grotesque as this phrase is, it had some boundaries, with images of dead children seen as an unbreakable taboo due to respect for their privacy and basic human dignity. Until now.
By printing that one shocking photo many publishers crossed a line in the sand which NGOs, charities and reporters have edged closer to for decades in pursuit of a quick boost in sales, popularity or donations.
Many NGOs and their staff who previously avoided dipping their toes into the murky world of ‘aid porn’ plunged in head first after seeing the images of this particular drowned child, but this imagery is being exploited for short term gain and is not being used to work towards a real solution.
If, as many claim, these images are being shared to highlight the scale of the crisis why were they not used before? Hundreds have died in the Mediterranean this year and it seems extremely unlikely that the only photos of child victims have just emerged.
The reason is that these images are provocative, in focus and serve to inspire a breed of pity and guilt that grainy mobile phone footage of overcrowded dinghies dragged beneath the waves simply does not.
But this guilt will fade. As with so many other causes aided by ‘slacktivism’ people will sign a petition, attend a march on a sunny day or send a few blankets to those held in camps across Europe, but few will maintain their engagement with the issue.
By trying to shock the world into immediate action with the image of a drowned refugee child the media provokes an emotional response, but does not promote a deeper understanding of the complex social, economic and political factors that cause people to leave their country.
This wave of outrage, unleashed by one tragic image, should not be about the death of one child, but rather the rights of countless children who have been robbed of the most crucial formative years of their lives and left scattered across the globe. By focusing on the story of one dead toddler the world is forgetting that hundreds of thousands of other children face similar dangers and injustices.
In 2014 CRIN made a decision to use artwork instead of photographs in all of our work. We believe that our stand will help avoid any sense of pity and encourage people to think about why children’s rights are violated, including in the ongoing refugee crisis.
If the world looks at the crisis as one of just life and death it will forget that the most vulnerable young refugees are missing out on their rights to education, to not be detained and to an adequate standard of living among many, many others.