Moshi Monsters aren't just harmless fun "What pains us is that a company that wants to thrill and excite children in the imaginary world is not admitting that this is going to have an effect on the real lives of children they meet in the playground, school bus or classroom," says Changing Faces founder and chief executive James Partridge, who was himself disfigured after being severely burned in a fire at the age of 18. Bullying because of his appearance is something that 17-year-old Lucas Hayward has experienced at first hand. He was born with frontal-nasal, craniofacial dysplasia (a congenital condition, where the nose has a wide flat appearance and the eyes are wideset) and was bullied so badly at his primary school he had to leave. "I was called freak and Elephant man," he recalls. The boys would punch me and stand on my head....Most of the time I was too scared to go into the playground. With support from Changing Faces, Lucas moved to a new school where there was zero tolerance for bullying. But he is supporting the charity's campaign because it chimes with his experience. I know that Moshi Monsters are extremely popular - my mum's a child-minder and all her kids have Moshi Monster lunch bags. But I've seen how the kids connect how ugly the characters are with how evil they are.  The charity first contacted Mind Candy in May but the company has declined to take on its suggestions to either remove the Freakface, Bruiser and Fishlips characters, change their names, or remove the descriptions putting value judgements on their disfigurements (A similar campaign by Changing Faces in the summer saw Lego swiftly alter a value-laden description of a badly scarred Lone Ranger character). Changing Faces has now launched a petition, which has more than 1,500 signatures so far and is being backed by senior maxillofacial surgeon Alistair Cobb, whose practice covers the south west. "I have three kids who love Moshi Monsters" he says. But the choices of names for their monsters are shocking. I work with children and adults with facial differences and the problems they face are bad enough without equating disfigurement with something sinister. A spokesperson for Mind Candy said the company was sorry for any offence given, although it stood by the decision not to change the monsters" names. "We have met with the charity and discussed the possibility of including a storyline within one of our narratives to support their work in the coming months," she said. "Many other children's entertainment characters, from Disney to Marvel have featured quirky and unusual looking visual characteristics," she added. These are the essence of good, visual storytelling. Our "monsters" have a range of characteristics and include some of our most popular and well loved characters, Zommer, Big Bad Bill and Gingersnap." Changing Faces is currently taking legal advice over the issue. "We are not against Moshi Monsters - it's a fantastic game," says Partridge. But to associate facial disfigurement with nastiness legitimises prejudice.