Are there more young people going missing these days, or do we simply have a better..

hatrickpatrick

...way of spreading the word?
I'm uncertain as to whether the massive deluge of missing person alerts over the last year is the result of more people going missing than before, which would be awful, or people making better use of the internet and social media to spread awareness (without there being an increase in the actual number of people disappearing), which would obviously be a good thing.

Is this a problem that's getting worse, or are we simply getting better at publicizing it as widely as possible to help find people?

Knex*

I would definitely think that with social media and the internet nowadays, we have far more exposure and awareness of the issue than ever before.

I don't have any stats to justify it, unfortunately, but I wouldn't be surprised if missing persons, in terms of percentage of population, has gone down.

Alf. A. Male

I have no idea of the stats, but the increase in awareness probably means the number of people who stay missing has almost certainly decreased, so that even if there are more, the fact that they're more likely to be located quickly and safely, or become aware themselves that they are wanted back by their loved ones, has well offset any increase in those going missing in the first place.

GLaDOS

It's something I've definitely noticed myself, seems to be a new case every 3-4 weeks. Can only assume it's down to increase in social media and computer literacy in general.

seamus

The media in general still tend not to pick up on these things unless there seems to be more to the disappearance than someone running away with a boyfriend/girlfriend or having a spat with their parents.

Facebook is the primary avenue for these things now where previously it would have been phone calls and texts to all the child's mates, possibly a few posters up around the local area. Facebook means more exposure because so much of the facebook population blindly like & share everything which appears remotely in the emotional/human interest realm, without even checking up on it.

The majority of people who disappear do so of their own accord, so it's a bit pointless putting out appeals for information unless you've reasonable grounds to believe that they haven't done so.

I would be interested to know if there has been any improvement in the resolution rates of missing persons cases since Facebook went mainstream.

Dubwat

I think the Gardai changed their policy/approach a few years back and now they're much quicker to go public with missing persons.

However, the number of people (not just young people) going missing is increasing annually. It's quite a jump. Found this graphic on the garda website...



(apologies - just realised I don't know how to post pics)

Santa Cruz

Is it right to say that they are gone missing? Surely they are just gone where they don't want people to know. They know where they are themselves