Facebook reports of a young boy abandoned in Lancashire and West Yorkshire are hoaxes

Posts in multiple Facebook groups have falsely claimed that a child, aged around seven, has been found abandoned by roadsides in various locations in the UK.

One post in a group covering Darwen in Lancashire claims a boy “approximately 7 years old” was “found abandoned by the roadside in #darwen just an hour ago” and that he is “currently safe with our officers” but has “no name, no family, and no one to claim him”. People are encouraged to share the post as it “could bring him back to the loving arms of his family”.

A post in a Facebook group covering Bradford and West Yorkshire features a very similar claim, but with slightly different wording. This post says: “This sweet little boy, around 7 years old, was found abandoned by the roadside about an hour ago here in #.Bradford He’s now safe with our officers at the station, but our hearts are breaking — we have no idea who his parents are, where he belongs, or why no one has come looking for him yet. Please, we are begging you — share this post and help us reunite him with his family. Every share could be the one that brings him home!”

Another post, in a group covering Ackworth, Hemsworth, Kirkby and Elmsall in West Yorkshire, features identical wording to this, but “#.Bradford” has been replaced with “#.ackworth”.

All of the posts are accompanied by two images, one in which a child is seen lying on what appears to be a hospital trolley whilst wearing a neck brace, and another in which cuts appear visible on a child’s head.

But these claims are false. Lancashire Police told Full Fact it wasn’t aware of the incident mentioned in the post, and West Yorkshire Police confirmed that the posts appeared to be false.

We’ve seen examples of these same images posted alongside very similar captions in Facebook community groups based in South Africa and the US state of Tennessee, though we’re not sure exactly where the photos have come from or when they were first published.

We’ve written before about similar posts shared on Facebook community groups falsely raising the alarm for missing children, elderly people and criminals on the loose. Our investigation into these types of hoax posts found they’re often edited later to include links to surveys, freebies or cheap housing.

In February, we found these hoax posts continue to be an issue, with at least 47 communities across the UK being victim to nine different hoaxes we fact checked that month. We wrote to Meta for a second time asking it to take action.

You can find out more by watching an episode of BBC One’s Rip Off Britain in which our investigation is featured. Our guide also offers some tips on how to identify such hoaxes.