Missing children posters - sex and gender

[MotherEarthisaTerf]

These are thoughts I’ve mostly kept to myself because I have honestly no idea what should be done. But in our very sleepy county I’ve seen at least 3 missing children posters in the past couple of years shared by police. And it’s almost impossible to know who to look out for.

The last time I saw a missing poster for a child, it was of a teenager with a female name, a boys hair cut and an androgynous face. Described as wearing tracksuit and hoodie. No pronouns used throughout the poster.

Obviously, these children are extremely vulnerable and I doubt that a poster advertising “female teenager identifying as a boy currently in hiding” will help resolve any mental issues and make them want to come back to authority quickly.

I looked at the poster for a good 5 minutes trying to understand. Was this a boy identifying as a girl? Possibly. My awareness advised me I could guess they were a girl, identifying as non binary.

But the general public don’t have the capacity to study and rationalise.

I walked past a teenage boy yesterday, on reflection did they look like this?

A girl with short hair came into the corner shop I was in, I think it might have been her?

What nonsense are you spouting

If they look androgynous then surely it doesn’t make a difference. Protecting and individual’s mental health for vunerable children is important and there is no conflict with someone else’s rights here.

I assume that the poster is saying having no pronouns at all in the poster is not helpful. Perhaps a field for sex (biological) and gender would help anyone who may be looking. Or checking that they have spotted someone who could be the missing person. A photo can look more androgynous than the person does in real life.

Surely the photo speaks for itself, not sure why you think the general public doesn't have capacity to study and rationalise. Surely people are looking out for someone who looks like the photo.

Except photos often do not look like the person. Especially if that person is experimenting with their appearance. I get that it could be outing, but I assume it's important to find the person.

I agree.

I am quite shocked by other responses suggesting that covert respect for "preferred pronouns" (by omitting crucial information) should be prioritised over the safety of a missing child.

Runaways are easy prey for predators, which is why predators hang around bus and railway stations offering to "help" lone kids who look lost and in need of somewhere to stay. However, although both girls and boys are trafficked they are more likely to be girls and both boys and girls are more likely to be trafficked by someone they know, including members of their own family, than a stranger.

There are so many ways that a child could experience far worse damage to their mental health than temporary "pronoun annoyance".

However androgynous a photo might be, it is going to be easier in real life to determine whether a teenager is male or female, so this this information is crucial.

Sadly, if they are being trafficked, eg. for sexual exploitation, county lines or modern slavery, then their appearance might be disguised so that they look less like the "Missing Child" photo.

In the UK, "The United Kingdom is the most prominent country of origin for trafficked children – a total of 2,874 reported cases – followed by Vietnam (246 children), Sudan (163 children), Albania (160 children), Romania (138 children) and Eritrea (132 children). Children from Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria and Iran also made up significant numbers of those identified."

Home Office, National Referral Mechanism Statistics: UK, End of Year Summary, 2020

https://www.ecpat.org.uk/child-trafficking-statistics

The police are being anything but kind if they collude in disguising or obscuring the sex of a missing child, whether by referring to them as the opposite sex or by omitting to mention their sex.

If the child seeks to present as the opposite sex then it might well be "outing" to state this fact. However, the first responsibility of the police is to protect the child from harm and this information too could be crucial in helping to find the child as soon as possible.

As ever, if Safeguarding is put as the first priority then everything else falls into place and there should be no difficulty deciding not to obscure or misrepresent the sex of a missing child.

IMHO the WDI UK Campaign slogan "End Sex Falsification, Restore Safeguarding, Repeal the GRA" has things in the right order:

https://womensdeclaration.com/documents/451/WDI_UK_Response_to_FWS_v_Scottish_Ministers.pdf

I do believe that the GRA should be repealed but to focus only on the GRA misses the point that sex falsification of any sort always erodes safeguarding and would still need combatting even if the GRA were repealed today.

It's a picture ..

If you see someone resembling the picture call the police. It's not difficult

I am sure that whoever has reported the child as missing would prefer that police time was not wasted following up false-positive reports, which are always a problem and will be increased by omission of important information such as the sex of the child.

There is absolutely no reasonable excuse for the police making it harder to find a missing child.

I saw one of these in my local area the other day on Facebook. The young person had a generally female sounding name (but could be either), short hair, male features and the photo was blurry. Not once did they mention biological sex. The first thing I notice about a person is if they’re male or female so omitting this information is not helpful.

I agree.
Theres a young woman missing from our area since January. She is quite clearly female, yet all the missing posters describe “him” as a boy, so people who haven’t looked that closely are keeping their eye out for a young man.
There are comments on the fb appeals saying “isn’t that a girl?” followed by loads of “don’t be such a massive bigot” comments, even from her own family (where you can see photos of her growing up)
All it would take is to put on the post “X, who was born female but identifies as Y” just so people know who they’re looking for.

People can often look androgynous in a photo, but won't in person because you see their whole body in movement. Plus, you may hear their voice which usually is a clear sign of their real sex.

If they are serious about finding these kids they should say what their sex is.

I agree @MotherEarthisaTerf the priority here is to get these vulnerable children safe back home. Concealing sex (which is clearer irl) doesn’t help achieve that.

Is this what we're doing now? Transvestigating faces of children in missing posters?

Is this what you are doing now?
Offence-mining in a thread where members are expressing serious concerns about the police prioritising identity politics over the safety of missing children? 🙄

Its a fine balance though. We had a similar missing 16yo "boy" locally. You would assume from the picture the person was bigger than the tiny female they really were. However, when troubled teenagers run away, it won't help to "out them," or make them feel less "safe," coming home. If they've been fed the narrative online that someone not believing you've changed sex wants you to not exist, plastering their sex everywhere is not going to help.

I think you have to decide whether the poster is mainly for the public or for the vulnerable runaway to see. It's often the latter, so tread sensitively.

However, for dangerous people, men who might present as women, it should be as clear as day.

@Bosky Those figures for trafficked children are shocking. However, are the figures for UK so much more because it is better reported here than in other countries?

You have said what I wanted to say better than I could word it.

Those children were all trafficked within the UK. It's not an international report.

How did they find missing children before pronouns became the new must have gadget?

You seem to have failed to understand a key thing about missing teenagers.

They’re not missing by mistake, desperately needing a passing member of the public to notice them and realise they need help in the same way a missing 4 yr old might.

They’re deliberately not where they’re supposed to be. Either because they’ve chosen to leave, or someone has taken them away.

In the latter case, you’re not going to spot them (unless you happen to frequent brothels or other underground criminal enterprises).

If they’ve chosen to leave, the posters are aimed at them (so they know someone cares) or people they may come into contact with. Eg. Parents of friends they might be staying with. Anything that undermines the missing persons perception that theyre accepted and cared for is very definitely detrimental to their welfare. Thats far more important than you as a random member of the public knowing what’s inside their pants. 🤦‍♀️

”Thats far more important than you as a random member of the public knowing what’s inside their pants.”

What a sleazy take. What on earth makes you think that we are interested in their genitals? Is that what you are interested in?

Taken along with your apparent knowledge of brothels and “criminal enterprises” this is more than a little disturbing.

What research are you relying on that says there are only those two reasons that a teenager goes missing? From my personal knowledge of teenagers who went missing, they did not fit either of the two scenarios you describe.

So the teenagers you knew who went missing neither left of their own accord, or were taken.

They accidentally wandered off and couldn’t sort themselves out?
Right……

(I have no interest in what’s in their pants. But the OP seems to think it’s essential, and far more useful than a recent picture of them and the name they go by. 🙄

Whenever I see a 'missing' post about a teenager I wonder what the back story is. As mentioned above it's nearly always that a teen has deliberately 'gone missing' due to some falling out with family or mental health issue. While I take the point that posts are partly aimed at the missing person themselves, sightings by strangers/CCTV are still helpful to help track them down.

However I'm always aware that 'found safe and well' is by no means the happy ending to the story and frequently the same teens go missing again and again, or eventually end up in trouble with the police. I work in court services and often when googling a young offender's name (over 18s) one thing that pops up is them going missing as a teen.

”(I have no interest in what’s in their pants. But the OP seems to think it’s essential, and far more useful than a recent picture of them and the name they go by.”

You seem determined to misrepresent the OP as well as other members whose primary concern is that the missing child is found. You are the only one fixated on “what’s in their pants”, which is either perverse or puerile.

If their primary concern was that the missing child was found safely, then they’d focus on quality of photograph and description, name(s) they’re known by, areas known to frequent.

Not fixating on the missing persons biological sex being on public posters. That’s driving an agenda into a topic where it’s not necessary and has high potential to be harmful rather than beneficial.