If you’ve seen your face on a missing poster or website, it means that someone is worried about you and has reported you missing to the police.

You have probably seen a photograph of yourself with your name, age, the area you went missing from and maybe the last time you were seen there. It may be on a police poster or website, or you may have seen yourself on a Missing People poster on the Missing People website (Missing People is the charity that runs Runaway Helpline).

You may feel upset or angry about this, or you may be surprised that anyone thought you were missing. It is usually a family member who reports someone missing, but it can be a foster carer, a social worker or a staff member from your care home. The police need to see you and speak to you to make sure you are safe and well before they can take you off their list of missing people and remove all the posters and web appeals.

If you are under 18, they will want to bring you back to where you usually live – but only if it is safe for you to be there. If you don’t feel safe there, it’s important to make sure the police know this. It may not feel easy to speak to the police about why you don’t feel safe at home and Runaway Helpline can help. Maybe you’d prefer to talk to your social worker or support worker before talking to police and we can help you do that, too.