I posted this on Facebook a while ago, but I think it bears repeating. It was a tip I posted by a respected law enforcement agency warning people to be extremely careful about “sharing” requests to help find missing children. There have been cases where these requests were created by someone looking for a child who wasn’t actually missing but the individual was seeking information about the child for questionable reasons. Those reasons range from custody battles and a parent hiding a child from an abusive parent to sex trafficking.

No doubt some are legitimate but is it worth the risk? When a missing child is reported, law enforcement uses many resources including social media. Personally, my policy is to only share posts about missing children made by verifiable law enforcement agencies. It’s NOT worth the risk.

I’ve expanded the original Facebook post and included it on my website because this is important. Most people are caring and want to be helpful and that means sometimes on social media we click without much thought. Good intentions can have tragic consequences.

This might also be a good reminder to talk with any children who have social media accounts about the dangers and hazards. If they see a missing puppy post last seen in their neighborhood, will they go looking for it? I hope not because I’m not sure who posted it and why.

Some will object to living in fear but it’s not fear; it’s caution and common sense. I doubt that most parents would teach their children to try to beat the yellow light when crossing the street. We teach them to look both ways even when the light is green, right? This is no different. I queried a second-grader at school about fire safety recently. She had no trouble remembering (and demonstrating!) “Stop, Drop, Roll.” Let’s teach them to to “Stop! Think!”

If you need some help with that conversation there are some great resources on the Internet and schools can often be helpful. One personal favorite site is Netsmartz–all kinds of short videos and resources there for different aged kids teaching how to be smart on the Internet.

Since this post will also show up on Mr. Boomsma’s Facebook Page… do think, but please click and share it. You just might save a child in the process.