Investigators Using Social Media to Find Missing Children

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Gone are the days when social media is only used to share what you had for dinner or announcing to the world that you are headed to the gym. But social media has become a platform for any and everyone to say what’s on their mind, and sometimes that’s great, but all too often it isn’t. Social is significantly lacking in decorum. But at least some are using social for good.

These days, law enforcement is using social media to find missing children.

Washington, DC police are leading the way on this. In 2017, alone, the district is averaging about 190 missing kids a month. By using social media, information about the children is getting out quickly. Previous to this, the district was issuing press releases, but with social media, there are now thousands of people getting information about these children.

This new way of spreading the word is helping to find missing children, for example a Twitter user recently created a screenshot of several missing person’s flyers. She then shared the tweet with her followers, and it received over 108,000 retweets. It also, however, raised the red flag that these girls might be the victims of a human-trafficking scheme.

DC police admits that missing children are vulnerable to this type of exploitation, but are quick to point out that there is no evidence that these missing people were linked to any type of known human trafficking scheme.

Other groups, such as the Black and Missing Foundation, are also using social media to share leads, but still use traditional media, too. For instance, in 2012, a missing teen in New York was found in a matter of hours after her story appeared on the television show, The View.

Thanks to this new way of making the public aware of missing kids, DC police are seeing results. During the last two weeks of March, for instance, eight children were found after their stories were shared on social media.

Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert and speaker is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen. See him knock’em dead in this identity theft prevention video.