A social media app with disappearing messages has become the latest weapon in the fight to find people who have vanished.
Queensland Police used the launch of National Missing Persons' Week in Brisbane on Monday to announce they have signed up to Snapchat, which allows users to post and send images that can be viewed for a maximum of 10 seconds before they disappear forever.
The Snapchat app, which will be used to post photos and digitally age-enhanced images of missing persons, will extend the QPS's current social media reach.
"The demographics using Snapchat in Australia are largely in the 18 to 25-year-old demographic, so it enables us to send information and images to these people who may not be engaged in other forms of social media," QPS Acting Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford said.
Around 38,000 people are reported missing across Australia each year - enough to fill the Gabba stadium - with those aged between 13 and 17 six times more likely to go missing than the rest of the Australian population.
The annual campaign was established in response to the disappearance of Perth backpacker Tony Jones, 20, who went missing in north Queensland in 1982.
A 2002 inquest ruled Mr Jones was the victim of foul play, but a new inquest into his disappearance was opened last year and will resume in Townsville this month.
This year's campaign, "Still waiting for you to come home", coincides with the 25-year anniversary of the disappearance of teenage siblings Chad and Melony Sutton.
Chad, 16, and Melony, 14, went missing on November 23, 1992, after leaving their family home in Inala and missing the school bus.
Acting Deputy Commissioner Linford renewed an appeal for information about the pair, urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
