Social Media Mobilize Public to Help Find Missing Children

Social Media Mobilize Public to Help Find Missing Children

By Joshua Y. Shen Staff Writer

Washington - It's been nearly two years since Scott Watkins last saw his two young sons.

Awarded full custody of Christopher and Alexander in January 2009, Watkins has dedicated himself to finding his missing boys since his ex-wife abducted them in March 2009 and fled from their native Canada to Europe.

While he has worked to draw the attention of Canadian authorities and mainstream media, Watkins soon recognized the importance of Internet technology and social networking through Facebook and online discussion forums.

"By using social media we can get important information about missing children out immediately," Watkins said. These new technologies also provide him an international vehicle that can reach local and federal police elsewhere.

Police departments across Canada are now embracing these methods and have established Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts to post descriptions of suspects.

AMBER ALERTS GO VIRAL

In the United States, Facebook has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the U.S. Department of Justice to expand the AMBER Alert system for mobilizing citizens after suspected child abductions.

AMBER officially stands for "America's Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response," but was named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in Texas in 1996. Traditionally AMBER Alerts are broadcast on radio and television stations as well as on LED billboards along roads near where a child goes missing. The information usually includes descriptions of the child and suspected abductor, as well as other information like license plate numbers.

Ernie Allen, the president of the NCMEC, believes the Facebook partnership will greatly increase not just the number of people notified, but the public's involvement in locating missing children.

"One of the biggest hurdles is that when alerts come from an anonymous national entity, many people feel they're not good at recognizing faces and details," Allen said.

In contrast, Allen believes that Facebook is a familiar platform many people trust and interact with every day.

"When these alerts come from people you know, it can motivate your awareness to the details," Allen said. "Friends can easily spread AMBER Alerts with each other, allowing the information to go viral."

Users who want to receive these alerts simply have to "like" one of the 53 AMBER Alert pages Facebook has created for U.S. states and territories.

"Facebook is not just a social network. It's one of the largest communication platforms in the world," said Chris Sonderby, lead security and investigations counsel with Facebook.

Facebook is also donating 50 million "impressions," which counts the number of times an advertisement appears on a page.

Today AMBER Alerts reach every U.S. state and territory. The system has inspired local versions in Australia, Malaysia and numerous European countries.

"The whole premise is that there needs to be a mechanism for mobilizing eyes and ears of the public in the early hours after disappearance of a child," Allen said. "A place like Facebook with its half a billion users is going to revolutionize the search for missing children."

EMPOWERING THE PUBLIC

According to the NCMEC, more missing children are recovered due to tips from the public than from police investigations, one reason why social media have such potential to empower and mobilize people for a common good.

In China, a prominent professor, Yu Jianrong, started a microblog called "Street Photos to Rescue Child Beggars" (see microblog website ( http://t.sina.com.cn/1932619445 )) using a Chinese version of Twitter to help combat a form of human trafficking in which young children are abducted and forced to beg for money in the cities.

Rather than giving money, concerned Chinese citizens can put photos on the microblog and include the time and location the photos were taken for parents with missing children to examine.

News reports estimate that nearly a quarter million people subscribed to Yu's microblog within the first month of its campaign.

In Europe, international organizations like Help Find My Child (see organization website ( http://www.helpfindmychild.net/ )) and Forever Searching (see organization website ( http://www.foreversearching.com/ )) are also helping parents get their children's images and information online by building their presence on Facebook and Myspace groups, blogs and YouTube videos.

Watkins, an expert in search engine optimization, also contributes by promoting visibility for a missing child's online presence.

With all the necessary taglines on a website, anyone performing a search using words like "missing" or "abducted" along with any part of a child's name can see that website high on the results page, thus attracting a bigger audience to the site.

Watkins said this was important because people often want to do their own research before approaching law enforcement authorities.

"Now if a concerned teacher anywhere around the world has suspicions about a child's welfare, she can perform a quick search and possibly get the right information to identify a missing child," Watkins said.

ENDS

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