True crime shows are marking a change in how people engage with crime and mysteries, and it’s playing out in real time in the case of missing Nova Scotia children Jack and Lilly Sullivan.

Nova Scotia

The disappearance of Nova Scotia children Jack and Lily Sullivan has attracted significant attention from true crime enthusiasts and online communities. Family members, like their grandmother Belinda Gray, welcome the widespread discussion, believing it keeps the case in the public eye and may help generate new leads.

Law enforcement acknowledges that tips from these shows have sometimes aided investigations, but they also caution that false information can divert resources. Experts highlight ethical concerns about turning real-life suffering into online content, urging content creators and audiences to consider the human impact of their engagement. Despite these challenges, some content creators insist their primary goal is to advocate for the missing children and maintain public awareness.

What true crime shows mean for missing children's family

The case of missing Nova Scotia children Jack and Lily Sullivan has become all-consuming for true crime enthusiasts on social media. Experts say there are benefits and pitfalls. While the discussions can, and have, led to real-world leads for police, there are also ethical concerns in turning people who are already suffering into content. Okay, hey guys, welcome to the live, it's been a minute or so. Sunny Austin does this multiple times a week, sits for hours in her BC home discussing every aspect of the disappearance of Jack and Lily Sullivan. In the chat, members of their family. YouTubers, true crime community, different. We can sit there and keep these cases alive and keep pushing them out there and have family members come join, talk if they want to. Not everything that's discussed on Austin's show is based in truth, and she realizes that. For her, it's about raising the case's profile. It was really about being a voice for the victims, and that's really the core of everything. Belinda Gray is Jack and Lily's paternal grandmother. She started watching Austin's show amid a lack of answers. In fact, Gray regularly tunes in to more than 10 YouTube shows that are covering the case. She too realizes that online conversations can run amok, but she doesn't care. To me, the more people that talk about Jack and Lily, the better it is. I don't care who they are. They can state whatever they want that isn't true. I don't care because people are listening and Jack and Lily's name is still out there. Sergeant Chris Marshall says some of the 800 tips the RCMP have followed up on were a direct result of the true crime shows that are covering the case. He says in general, these sorts of tips can and have helped move investigations forward. My experience is that there is a big benefit, but it's like anything, there's risk and reward to anything that we do. The risk? The tips police know from the outset are false. They are nevertheless required to do their due diligence and fully investigate. We now have to put investigators on that information, which is taking people away from potentially chasing down actual real leads that are actually based in fact. So that's the complication that can come. But according to experts, this kind of exposure is a double-edged sword. I think it's important to remember that every single story that unfolds online, it's real Whitney Phillips says there are major ethical concerns with discussing such cases on platforms like YouTube. Phillips says click-based web engagement is designed to turn world events into commodified content. The attention economy has long driven pop culture and news, in that the most intriguing, shocking and upsetting information is what people respond to and engage with. But she says that can reduce victims of crime and their families into a consumable product. But Phillips says the attention economy is inescapable. And so it's up to all of us to ponder the ethics of these conversations. I believe that content producers, including everyday citizens sharing information, have a responsibility of understanding what their digital technologies might not be wanting them to see in terms of the human impact, the human consequences. Anyways, if you guys haven't hit that like and share for Jack and Lily, again, they've been missing since May 2nd of 2025. Austin says she does make money off her channel through YouTube and donations. But that's not why she's doing it. So the impact that I know that our channel can have is that we just keep fighting for people to share to the algorithm, to keep the story out there, do it for Jack and Lily because they're missing children. Allie Thompson, CBC News, Halifax.

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