Should I share missing child posts on Facebook?
Posts imploring you to help locate missing children by sharing photos of them are a common occurrence on social media websites like Facebook.
Many users – if not most – will comply and share them with their friends. After all, that is our natural instinct. We want to help, and the power of social media is an effective way of spreading the word. In this instance, social media can – and often does – help.
It is important to stress that this article’s intention is not to discourage people from sharing genuine appeals for help. However it is important to be aware that not all appeals may be genuine, or some may not appear to be what they seem. The intention of this post is to highlight the potential consequences of sharing these posts when you shouldn’t, and to ultimately help you determine what you should and should not share.
Missing child posts that are not what they seem
It may be difficult upon a cursory glance to understand why a plea to find a missing child[ren] may be fake, or something else. But sometimes they are.
The child may not actually be missing. Anyone can create a post on Facebook or other websites claiming that a child is missing, but it doesn’t mean that they are. In 2013, a father in Sweden posted photos of his “missing children”, imploring others to share the post. Share they did, until someone recognised the children and notified the father. The problem, however, was that the children were not missing. They were in a protection program with their mother, hiding from the father who posted the appeal. In this case the children had to be given new identities and relocated. However the consequences could have had been grave.
This demonstrates a core problem with many “missing child” posts. We don’t know the full story. We only know what we can see on the post itself, and as we said above, anyone can publish a post on social media.
Additionally children may not need to be “found”, or they don’t want to be. Birth parents may try and find their adopted offspring through social media, and posting appeals to locate them is an effective way of doing that. However this causes legal related issues, since reunions between birth parents and adopted children have to undergo legal processes where both parties and the adoptive parents would need to come to an agreement. Social media pleas bypass those processes.
It may be a hoax. In 2013, a missing child poster spread across social media, claiming to be a plea to find “Amy Hamilton”. The poster claimed that she was kidnapped by an “Asian grooming gang”. However it wasn’t real. Amy didn’t exist, and it turned out to be a scheme by an extreme right-wing group to spread hate towards ethnic minorities living in the UK.
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But there are other motivations too. Like-farming posts are designed to trick people into engaging with them based on deception and exploitation. These posts steal images of children from across the Internet – without permission from the families – and use them in posts designed to get them followers. During our time running this site, we’ve seen numerous missing child hoaxes, many of which contain the text “AMBER ALERT” – but this doesn’t mean it’s real.
It may be outdated. We know that children go missing all the time, and fortunately in most cases they are soon found alive and well. Perhaps they ran away, or stayed at a friend’s house, or were just playing truant from school. However incorrectly constructed warnings often spread far and wide well after the child has been found, which is ultimately just a waste of everybody’s time.
When to share and when not to share
This leads us to the question of when you should and shouldn’t share a missing child post. As we said above, we don’t want to discourage social media users from sharing legitimate appeals since social media can provide an effective platform for the relevant people to get the word out.
It can be very tempting to say “well I’ll share just in case it’s true“, believing that it’s better to share and help even it turns out to be a hoax. We can understand that, but the points we addressed above should demonstrate that this is not necessarily the case, since you can ultimately be putting the very people you’re trying to help in danger.
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Think of it this way – if the police or authorities have a legitimate reason to be concerned with a child and need the public’s help, they – or a relevant media outlet, charity or welfare group – will launch an appeal themselves, which brings us to the crux of our article…
Only share missing child posts that come from (or are attached to) a legitimate appeal from a trusted authority.
This can include a webpage from a trusted authority on missing local children, a webpage or social media post from a local police force or a reputable news story that was published in coordination with local authorities.
This is because –
– It will be updated if the child is found.
– You know that authorities are actively looking for the child.
– You can get information on how you can help, or if your help is needed.
– Any potential concerns or dangers can be described.
– It will include relevant and helpful information such as the child description, when they went missing and what locations are of interest.
– It will likely include a link to important updates.
If you come across a missing child post that lacks any information, link or source to a legitimate appeal, then research first. If you can’t find any information from local media or police (which should be shared instead) then you may very well be looking at something you really shouldn’t be sharing.
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