RESEARCH BLOG.

When a child goes missing it is a common approach for law enforcement, charities, and the family and friends of that missing child to create a public appeal in the hope that a member of the public has some information on the child’s whereabouts. These appeals may be distributed in numerous locations such as newspapers and shop windows, but more commonly distributed through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and, more recently, TikTok. Online publicity appeals allow

Social media has become very prominent as a tool in the search for missing persons. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and more recently TikTok are being used to raise awareness for issues regarding missing persons and searching for those who have gone missing. Publicity appeals aim to elicit information to help locate the missing person, to appeal directly to the missing person to make contact, to support families, to raise awareness of the

Does TikTok have untapped potential for locating missing people and/or in missing person investigations?...

Think of the last time you saw a missing person poster. Not an emergency AMBER Alert sent to your phone, but an actual photo, description, last known location poster. Was it stapled to a telephone pole? In your mailbox? On a Walmart wall? Maybe, but there is a greater chance it was on social media. Over the past few years, social media has become an increasingly useful resource for police when trying to track down missing persons. In 2019, 73,184 Canadians were reported missi