Why I Do Not Care About Madeline MacCann

Of all the children who go missing everyday Madeline MacCann is virtually the only known face, or name on the register.

Brought into the press again with the publication of The Truth of the Lie, by Portuguese police investigator Goncalo Amarla, Madeline MacCann seems to be the only cute child the press cares about.

The Truth of the Lie states that the MacCann's killed their daughter, and then covered it up with an investigation, which of course the parents took to court. Whether this is true or not, the disappearance of Madeline was very much the parents fault anyway, having left her in a foreign hotel room while they went drinking all night and having different people check in with her every hour.

If anything her disappearance should have highlighted poor parenting, the dangers of foreign travel with small children, or even just the extensive list of ongoing missing children cases.

That is not how it went however, instead the press decided these parents care more than many, as they took their case from parliament to court and back again. The press grabbed onto the cute blue eyed, blonde child with a happy back story. The public fed it all.

But here's the thing, I know all of this about Madeline MacCann and her back story without having to look it up. I know exactly what she, her parents, even the police investigators look like. I do not know any of that for all the other children who are missing.

Every five minutes a child goes missing in the UK. 100,000 go missing each year and many are not found.

With human trafficking on the rise in the UK, surely these children should be a priority. However, Madeline MacCann's story, sad as it is, remains in the way of other parents, other children garnering the public attention they need. This is in part the presses fault, in part the public's fault, in part the parents selfish concern for their own above all others.

But I no longer care about Madeline MacCann, I have become desensitized to her story, but I have yet to learnt the stories of thousands of others who deserve to be known, remembered and most importantly found.

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