ISSUES
: The Internet of Things
Chapter 2: Our digital future
32
How Facebook and Twitter changed
missing child searches
Every second counts when a child disappears and social media sites can help speed up
investigations.
By Bella Qvist
E
very three minutes a child is
reported missing in the UK;
across the EU that number
rises to one child every two minutes.
In the US, the FBI recorded almost
467,000 missing children in 2014,
which is close to one reported
every minute.
In the US, milk cartons, posters, flyers,
meetings and traditional news reports
formed the main missing child search
channels until 1996, when Dallas-
Fort Worth broadcasters teamed up
with local police to develop a warning
system that interrupted regular
programming on television and radio
broadcasts, and highway signs.
The service, Amber Alert, is used only
for the most serious of cases, sending
out messages via email, text, traffic
signs and digital billboards, as well as
through Twitter and Facebook.
International non-profit organisation
Action Against Abduction long
pressed for a similar system in the
UK, but it wasn’t until 2012, after the
abduction of April Jones, that Child
Rescue Alert was activated nationally.
Parents, is it OK to spy on your
child’s online search history?
In 2015, Child Rescue Alert
partnered with Facebook to harness
the social network’s reach. Now,
when a missing child case meets
certain criteria of seriousness, law
enforcement agencies can issue
geo-targeted posts, containing a
photo and description, to appear in
the newsfeeds of Facebook users in
the area where the child is believed
to be.
“All over the world, we’ve seen
communities rallying together in times
of need, using Facebook to spread
the word – and these alerts will make
that quicker and help to reach more
people than ever before,” said Emily
Vacher, trust and safety manager at
Facebook at the September launch.
“Time is often a crucial element when
locating vulnerable missing people
who are at risk to themselves or to
the public,” says Metropolitan Police
commander Alison Newcomb. “The
use of social media supports our
investigations and appeals and has
achieved great results, some of which
simply could not have happened
through traditional communication
channels.”
Newcomb says the Met operates more
than 400 Twitter accounts, but also
works closely with other agencies.
“One of the many reasons that the
police come to us to helpwith publicity
is that we have this wide network on
Twitter and Facebook,” says Polly
Balsom, communications manager at
Missing People.
Gavin Portnoy, head of digital media
at the National Center for Missing
& Exploited Children, which makes
active use of Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat,
has proof of the power of sharing.
In 2015, the charity created a video
appeal featuring imagery of a missing
girl and the person they suspected
had kidnapped her. The video was
shared widely and a woman spotted
them.
“People feel empowered to make a
difference; it’s the opportunity to do
something,” he says.
Another example is the case of Bella
Bond, a three-year-old girl whose
body was washed up on the shores
near Boston, US. Her identity was
confirmed following an extensive
social media campaign in which
a computer-generated composite
image was estimated to have reached
47 million people on Facebook.
“It was definitely one of those
cases where we can say with great
confidence that because it went
viral and because as many people
interacted with it, it got in front of the
eyes of the right person who said
‘Oh my goodness, I know that girl’,”
Portnoy says.
Although social media has provided
police and other agencies with
extended publicity tools, those same
tools can also put children at risk.
In Sweden, for example, a man got
thousands of people to share his
unofficial Facebook appeal for his
missing children, but the children
were living with their mother who was
understood to be under protection
with a new identity after leaving the
man.
Geoff Newiss, director of research
at Action Against Abduction, says
that when it comes to searching for
children in abduction cases, which
can be more complex than missing
child cases, social media has been
more of a good addition than a game
changer.
“There is certainly an increase
in cases where the grooming is
facilitated by online contact, so in that
sense technology provides risks,”
he says, adding that teachers need
more resources to educate children
about this, and that the old “stranger
danger” advice needs to be updated.
Portnoy, however, says that while he
recognises that social media is by
no means a perfect tool, its benefits
should be acknowledged. “[It] is
another really positive tool that’s
in the arsenal of the public, of law
enforcement, of non-profits like us
that are trying to help.”
27 January 2016
Ö
Ö
The above information is
reprinted with kind permission
from
The Guardian
. Please
visit
for
further information.
© 2014 Guardian News
and Media Limited
