Community Guidelines

1. Why These Guidelines Exist

Our community reports missing people, lost pets and hijacked vehicles, shares sightings, and supports one another through counseling and conversation. That only works when every report can be trusted and every member feels safe. By using Missing People you agree to follow these guidelines, alongside our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

2. Be Truthful and Accurate

• Only report cases that are real, and only sightings you genuinely witnessed.
• When you submit a case you confirm, on record, that the information is true and that you are authorised to share it. We keep that confirmation.
• Update or close your case as soon as the person, pet or vehicle is found — outdated cases waste search effort that another family needs.
• Never report someone as missing to locate them for any other purpose — including debt collection, a custody dispute, or to find someone who is avoiding you. This is a serious abuse of the platform.
• Do not impersonate other people, families, the police, or Missing People staff.

Deliberately false reports are removed, may lead to a permanent ban, and may be reported to the SAPS — filing a false missing person report is a criminal offence in South Africa.

3. Protect Children

Cases involving children receive additional safeguards on our platform: they are reviewed before publication, and exact locations are never shown publicly. You must:

• Only post a child's case if you are the parent, legal guardian, or acting with the family's consent.
• Never share information that could endanger a child — home addresses, school names, daily routines or precise locations.
• Never use the platform to contact, groom or solicit anything from a minor.

4. Respect Privacy and Dignity

• Missing and found people are real people in crisis. Do not speculate about why someone went missing, their mental health, or their family.
• Do not publish someone else's personal information — phone numbers, ID numbers, addresses or medical details — in comments or sightings. Case owners control what their case shares.
• Adults have the right to go missing. If a person is found safe and does not want contact, we will tell the reporter they are safe — and nothing more.
• If you appear on the platform and want content about you removed, you (or your guardian) can submit a takedown request from the case page or by emailing us. We treat these as urgent.
• Resolved cases are automatically stripped of photos and personal details after 90 days — closure should not cost a family their privacy forever.

5. Never Take Matters Into Your Own Hands

Community searching saves lives — vigilantism endangers them. If you see a missing person, a suspect or a hijacked vehicle:

• Do report the sighting on the platform with the time and place, and call the SAPS if the situation is live.
• Do not approach, follow, confront, detain or photograph people at close range — especially around hijacked vehicles, where suspects may be armed.
• Do not organise or call for "mob justice", confrontations or punishment of anyone, including suspects. Naming and accusing people of crimes is defamation and puts innocent people at risk.
• Do not demand or offer rewards through the platform, or use a case to raise funds. Fundraising scams that exploit missing person cases lead to an immediate ban.

6. Treat Everyone With Respect

The following have no place here, in any comment, message, case, photo or profile:

• Harassment, bullying, threats or intimidation of any member, family or staff.
• Hate speech or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or language.
• Graphic violence or gratuitously distressing imagery, sexual content, or content glorifying crime.
• Spam, repeated off-topic promotion, scams or phishing.
• Misusing the counseling and support spaces — counselors and members in those spaces are owed particular care and confidentiality.

7. Help Us Keep the Community Safe

You have tools, and using them protects everyone:

Content reported by multiple members is automatically hidden while our moderators review it. Reporting in bad faith to silence someone is itself a violation of these guidelines.

8. How We Enforce These Guidelines

Our moderation team reviews every report. Depending on severity, we may:

• Remove content that violates these guidelines.
• Issue a warning for first or minor violations.
• Suspend your account — you can still view content, but cannot post, comment or message until the suspension lapses. Repeated upheld violations lead to automatic suspension.
• Permanently ban your account for severe or repeated violations. Banned accounts lose all access.
• Report to authorities where the law requires it or someone is in danger.

9. Emergency and Support Contacts