Big Island Gazette (BIG) is very concerned over the amount of children that are reported “missing” on the Big Island.
The Hawaii Police Department a few years ago decided to reclassify many of the missing kids as “Runaways,” and only in certain circumstances would they list them as missing.
If you haven’t noticed… BIG is no longer posting ‘Missing Child’ cases on it’s social media platform… unless the case is really suspicious.
BIG will no longer post a missing child case unless the child has been missing for more than one week now… and in some cases, BIG may still not post the missing child.
The long term social media damage that can be done to a child by tagging their names and having their names being known as a possible runaway… is not worth BIG’s time or energy.
Most of these children are found soon after HPD releases them to the public. The reason some of these children are missing, may be a family issue more than anything.
Unfortunately, many of these HPD FOUND Releases are only released after the online damage may have been done. You know the saying about what’s goes on the internet… is always there… goes the same for these missing kids.
Click bait over “Missing Kids” is not… and will not be what Big Island Gazette will ever be about.