Five teenagers, who allegedly ran away from home together, were found by Hsinchu City police officers yesterday afternoon after netizens helped identify their whereabouts in response to a message and photographs posted on Facebook by a police officer.
According to Hsinchu City’s Third Police Precinct, three girls and two boys left their homes and allegedly ran away together on Wednesday.
Precinct police officer Kuo Chen-hsiu (高振修) was asked by the teenagers’ parents to post a message and the youngsters’ photographs on Facebook on Friday.
The message quickly spread among the nation’s netizens, with a few offering the police information on where they thought the teenagers might be.
The precinct said the five were found safe and sound in a house on Chunghwa Rd in Hsinchu City yesterday afternoon, and had since been taken home by their parents after the police brought the teenagers back to the police station.
Police said that initial questioning suggested that the five agreed among themselves to run away from home together.
Meanwhile, Third Police Precinct Chief Fu Meng-wei (傅孟煒) on Saturday asked Kuo to remove the teenagers’ photographs from his Facebook page out of concern that posting their photographs online was in violation of the Act Governing the Disposition of Juvenile Cases (少年事件處理法).
Commenting on the matter, Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare secretary-general Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said he thought posting the photographs was alright in this case as Kuo had received the parents’ consent and the situation was deemed an emergency because some worried that the children might try to commit suicide.
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