Family of missing Sheffield boy Ben Needham hits out at pages using AI to falsely claim he has been found
The family of missing Sheffield boy Ben Needham has hit out at a Facebook page using AI to falsely claim he has been found.
The Sheffield toddler was just 21 months old when he vanished on the Greek island of Kos in July 1991 while playing outside a farmhouse his grandparents were renovating.
In the decades since his disappearance, mum Kerry Needham has never given up hope she will see her son again one day, and even now she is anxiously waiting for progress on a DNA test for a man in the USA who could be Ben.
AI page falsely claims missing children have been found
However, Ben’s family has had to address posts circulating on social media claiming Kerry and Ben have been reunited.
A post to the official Help Find Ben Needham page on March 21 reads: “There is a post circulating that contains incorrect information about the disappearance of Ben Needham, including an AI-generated photograph claiming he has been reunited with Kerry Needham. This is not accurate.
“Spreading unverified or false details doesn’t help—it actually harms ongoing efforts and can hinder the investigation.”
The offending post was reported to South Yorkshire Police.
The statement by Kerry’s family included a link to the post, which is no longer accessible.
However, the post appears to have been hosted by a Facebook page named ‘UK Hot News,’ with its images branded with the phrase ‘Midnight Wire.’
The page features dozens of stories and images generated using AI that falsely claim world-famous missing children cases have been solved.
It appears to use age progression photos frequently handed out by police during investigations to create AI images of the children as grown ups and posing for photos with their long-lost families in the modern day.
Posts still available at time of writing (March 23) claim Ben Needham has been found, reading: “DNA confirmation and matching physical features have finally proven that the man found is indeed Ben Needham! After 35 years of searching since his disappearance on the Greek island of Kos, this ‘miraculous’ scientific proof has finally solved one of the world's most enduring mysteries and reunited a stolen son with his family.”
Another post with false information about Ben received over 1,700 reactions.
Other posts use AI generated images to claim missing girl Madeline McCann “has been found” and is now a homeless woman sleeping rough in America.
Another claims that missing South Yorkshire boy Andrew Gosden, who disappeared in 2007, has been reunited with his family, and again uses an AI-generated image to show a man who appears to be Andrew posing for photos.
The oldest post on the page is dated to March 1, 2026, although the page was created in February 2025.
The page lists an address and telephone number linked to St Andrews, but exclusively links readers to websites hosted in Vietnam.
South Yorkshire Police was contacted for a comment.