By a Biometrica staffer Wednesday, May 25, was International Missing Children's Day. It's a day that's dedicated to encouraging parents, guardians, caregivers, and others concerned with the well-being of children to make child safety a priority. The commemoration of this day, per...
By Aara Ramesh Last month, we wrote about some gaps in the child welfare system that can lead to children in foster care being abused. Unfortunately, the reality is that it’s not just those children who can fall prey to abuse. Almost...
By Deepti Govind & Aara Ramesh At Biometrica, we've repeatedly written about an epidemic that many in the country have been quietly dealing with: of missing and murdered Indigenous persons. There is no doubt that it is a public safety epidemic demanding...
By Deepti Govind At Biometrica, one of our key areas of focus is missing persons. We've repeatedly published pieces on this tragic epidemic — from the intersection of internet vigilantism and missing persons of color, to federal government measures, to how the...
By Aara Ramesh Over the last few weeks, the case of Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito has commanded the lion’s share of the internet and news media’s attention. Petito, a 22-year-old lifestyle vlogger (video blogger) from Long Island, was reported missing by her family...
By a Biometrica staffer The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a warning in May asking the public to be wary of scammers looking to extort family members of missing persons who share details on social media. The goal of these missing...
By Deepti Govind Child abductions are, thankfully, rare in the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in its "Inside the FBI" podcast on May 25, Missing Children's Day. But when it does happen, the statistics tell a terrifying story:...
By a Biometrica staffer In a move likely may have a far-reaching ripple effect, on Friday, June 25, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Facebook can be held responsible for its users engaging in illegal sex trafficking activities on the site, regardless...
By Aara Ramesh A landmark law intended to radically alter the landscape of sex trafficking online has had a limited impact in the three years since it was enacted, according to a recent report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)....
By a Biometrica staffer Today, May 25, is International Missing Children's Day. Over one million children are reported missing every year, the International Centre For Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) says on its website. In 2020, the National Center For Missing &...
For first responders and investigators, some of the most compelling cases are not the ones that got away, but the ones that disappeared without a trace. They are the people missing for decades, the bodies that were never found, the searches that...
By Gaétane Borders, Ed.S. If you're a missing African American child, you're very likely to get less media coverage, and be an oft forgotten statistic, than a missing white girl. Girl at play photo: © Akesin - Dreamstime.com African American children make...
By a Biometrica staffer Eight missing children were rescued in a five-day operation in the Indianapolis area, as part of “Operation Homecoming.” The children are between 6 and 17 years old and considered to be some of the most “at risk and...
This was a guest piece written in 2017. Numbers and statistics cited have since changed. You can find updated internet usage statistics at https://firstsiteguide.com/internet-stats/ and current information on other facts cited in this article at https://www.icmec.org/. Above picture: Courtesy ICMEC The anonymity that the Internet allows makes...