4 To what extent can ‘shock’ campaigns such as those produced by the NSPCC be justified?

What are the potential advantages and disadvantages of such a campaign? The NSPCC has one simple aim: to ensure that cruelty to children stops. However, it has to decide between many different, and sometimes conflicting, objectives to achieve its aim. The challenge is to ensure that the public is aware of the extent of the problem, when sometimes it is uncomfortable to think that such cruelty goes on in a modern society. The message has to be got across that, for example, every week in the UK one child dies at the hands of parents or carers and 600 children are added to the child protection registers.

The main objective of the charity is to end cruelty to children altogether, but as the figures above demonstrate, it is unfortunately a long way from that goal. It runs a series of programmes and campaigns to tackle child abuse, in the home, at work, at school, and in the community and in society. Since the campaign began, the NSPCC has been able to handle more calls on its National Child Protection Helpline, expand its schools service, produce parenting packs and work directly with over 10,000 children. To achieve its main objective, it must raise donations directly through fundraising and from individuals and corporate contributions. These sources provide 86 per cent of its income. It needs volunteers to raise funds, to campaign and to help with some of the core services. All of these contributors must believe they are doing a worthwhile thing in supporting the NSPCC rather than another charity. The NSPCC is therefore a prime lobbying and pressure group on child welfare issues. Campaigns have been run to influence government to raise such issues on the political agenda, to challenge government spending priorities and to influence law and policy making.