  Missing children, i.e., children reported to a relevant authority as having
"disappeared," constitute an important but often overlooked population. From a
research perspective, missing children constitute a hard-to-reach population
about which little is known. This is a particular problem in regions of the
Global South that lack robust or centralized data collection systems. In this
study, we analyze the composition of the population of missing children in
Guatemala, a country with high levels of violence. We contrast the official
aggregated-level data from the Guatemalan National Police during the 2018-2020
period with real-time individual-level data on missing children from the
official Twitter account of the Alerta Alba-Keneth, a governmental warning
system tasked with disseminating information about missing children. Using the
Twitter data, we characterize the population of missing children in Guatemala
by single-year age, sex, and place of disappearance. Our results show that
women are more likely to be reported as missing, particularly those aged 13-17.
We discuss the findings in light of the known links between missing people,
violence, and human trafficking. Finally, the study highlights the potential of
web data to contribute to society by improving our understanding of this and
similar hard-to-reach populations.
