[By Liu Rui/Global Times]

Over the Spring Festival, the message of a new microblog has been spreading like wildfire.

"Take a snapshot and save the child beggars" was created by Yu Jianrong, a famous Chinese scholar and activist.

The microblog posts pictures of child beggars sent in by ordinary citizens. Yu hopes it can promote the elimination of child beggars by calling public attention to the problem and deprive their taskmasters of profit.

There have been many microblog accounts devoted to public services. Yu Jianrong's new initiative has become so popular because it allows readers to actually make a difference themselves. Thanks to the active participation of the microblog's readers, thousands of pictures of child beggars have been put online within two weeks.

The popularity of the microblog sparked action from police. Chen Shiqu, the head of the Anti-Trafficking Office of the Ministry of Public Security, said he follows the microblog every day. Six abducted children have already been rescued through the efforts of the blog's followers.

Other microblogs have helped kidnapped children. Peng Gaofeng, a despairing father, had been searching for his missing son for three years, and posted an account and picture on a friend's microblog in September 2010, entitled "Can the Internet work miracles again?" On February 1, he received a tip about a boy who resembled his son, and the two were reunited by the end of the Spring Festival.

Microblogs, the Chinese equivalent of services like Twitter, have been part of Chinese online life for more than two years. Yu's efforts prove that microblogs can be an important part of growing civic awareness and activism.

According to research from Analysys International, a famous Chinese Internet research organization, the number of microblog users in China jumped from 8 million in 2009 to 75 million in 2010. The firm estimates that by the end of 2012, the number will reach 240 million. Microblogs cannot be underestimated as a new driving force for social progress.

Compared with the 5,896 children rescued in official anti-trafficking operations in recent years, six children rescued through a microblog are not many, although this was achieved in the space of only a couple of weeks.

Microblogs cannot become the main force in anti-trafficking efforts at present. But they've already proved their worth.