Why are there so many ‘missing’ teens?

[Wildflowers99]

I put missing in inverted commas as thankfully they all seem to turn up safely.

But I feel like every time I log into Facebook there’s another appeal for a vulnerable teenager who has gone missing in the local area. I don’t recall seeing this many appeals even a few years ago.

Is this happening in your area?

I don’t know if it’s increased but it’s always been a thing and now social media is used as a tool to make people aware of all these kids who are missing. I wonder if fb etc posts actually help to locate them at all? I mean, it’s always happened and most of the time they come home safe and sound.

I attended a lecture recently about County Lines. The lecturer said that when you see posts like that on social media, 99% of the time it is teens who have been taken, often to houses to "pay off" debts they didn't know they had. It was actually terrifying and I was very shocked. Sometimes children are taken many hundreds of miles away from their homes. Their parents will have no idea that they've ended up in the clutches of county lines dealers.

@ParrotParty

In answer to your question, because my teen is extremely violent, verbally abusive and aggressive. She had already physically assaulted her nine-year-old sister. I will not put myself in harm's way in public.

I would hate to think of a child in real danger and a parent using a heavily filtered photo, no one would recognise the child to look out for them

Sorry but yes I’d agree with this. I foster (respite/short stays) and I regularly see children/young people who have stayed. They know and play the system to avoid doing what they’re told. If they don’t fancy maths on a Tuesday off they go to a mates for 3 days and the whole thing starts again. Once they’ve been ‘found’, there’s lots of meetings, the upshot of which is no more maths and shorter school days, with free access out of the classroom whenever they want. They tell me all about this and think it’s hilarious 🥱

It's usually kids in the care system or under some kind of social services involvement.

Local authorities as the corporate parent can't use the same judgement an actual parent would use to say 'I know they are probably out with mates and being a dick' they have to report the child missing after a certain amount of time, every time, even if they know they are most likely just late and pushing boundaries.

My local police force realised they could hunt down wanted criminals much quicker by advertising them as 'missing'on Facebook rather than 'wanted'. People are much more willing to report a sighting of a missing person than they are to grass up a wanted crim. People are getting wise to it though after a few years - that the missing people all seemed to have police mugshots available for use was a bit of a giveaway.

They run away from children's homes/independent living facilities-by protocol they then must be reported as missing to the police.

County lines.

I also suspect the threshold for being taken into care has been lowered. So shit parents 30 years ago wouldn't report it if their kids were away for a while, but now those children are reported missing by their non-parental carers.

More kids in care, but no good quality care for teens, no decent therapy or mental health support = kids running away.

I honestly don’t recall my town having a new round of ‘missing’ posters up every day or even every week?

There was often articles about missing teenagers in the local papers. I was a tearaway teenager and still have the cut outs from when I ran away from home.