Around 75,000 children who had gone missing in the last three years are yet to be traced, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Of the about 2.36 lakh children who went missing in the last three years, 1,61,800 have been traced, minister of state for Parliamentary affairs Paban
Singh Ghatowar said during the Question Hour. "Unfortunately about 75,000 are still untraced," he said. The Centre, he said, has issued advisories to states to appoint nodal officers at all police stations to deal with such cases and make registration of FIRs mandatory. The advisories followed two interim orders of the Supreme Court in January 2013, he said.
The Supreme Court had ordered mandatory recording of FIRs with regard to missing children and the formation of special juvenile police units in different states.
Latest News -
Families with missing children need support -
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2013-03-03 15:48
Xie Chaohua, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, urged the government to offer assistance to families with missing children.
There were at least one million families with missing children in China by 2012, with 76,000 new families added each year, according to a report by the China Zhigong Party, a non-communist political party.
Xie, who also serves as deputy president of the Beijing committee of the China Zhigong Party, said those families face daunting pressures in areas such as healthcare and psychological support.
It is necessary to implement State mechanisms to assist the families, such as a complete social security system and enhanced subsidies, Xie said.
20 years ago 12-year-old Polly Klaas was kidnapped from her home in Petaluma. Since then her father, Mark Klaas, has devoted his life to helping other parents of missing children. And now he has turned to technology to further the cause.
In light of the recent search for Kevin Collins, who's been missing for 29 years, I think we've all been wondering what we can do to protect our own children. Certainly, technology is much different than it was in 1984 when Kevin disappeared. Now, there's a new app that could be a lifesaver.
The Polly Klaas Foundation has recently introduced a smartphone app calledPolly's Guardian Angel. If a child goes missing, the app enables parents to activate an alert right away to friends, family, and other nearby app users.
David Gonzales has three children and downloaded the app because of a recent abduction in his town, "We live in Morgan Hill, so obviously Sierra LaMar was a big incident in our neighborhood and so it brings about the awareness of your own children," he said.
Parents can download the app onto their iPhone for $4.99. An Android version will be released within a month.
A parent loads all the vital information of their child including pictures and information.
Safety Grid President Jim Hankins developed the app, "Plain facts that you would be able to recall at any time, you're going to be stumbling, and having quick access to the photos right there and distribute them," he said.
When an alert is activated, other app holders within a 15 mile radius are immediately notified. The app then guides you through the next steps.
"It prompts you to contact 911 if you haven't done so and then beyond that it will put you in contact with trained personnel at the Polly Center," said Marc Klaas. He notes that minutes are critical after a child goes missing, "It's become obvious to many people that Amber Alerts are too slow and too cumbersome."
It can take up to five hours from an initial police report before an Amber Alert is activated.
"I think that it does give me a little bit more piece of mind," Gonzales said.
The Klaas Foundation has also endorsed a combination GPS device and restricted cell phone that can be locked onto a child's wrist. The hope is that it will act as a deterrent to a potential kidnapper.
The new technology components of the Klaas Kids Foundation are all partnerships with outside companies and only a portion of the revenue goes to the foundation itself.
In order to track missing children, Haryana is set to launch the Missing Child Tracking System (MCTS) by next year, announced Sumita Misra Director General
Woman and Child Development Department, Haryana, on Thursday.
“The Haryana government will launch a two-day training programme on the ‘formulation of web portal to track missing children’ on December 10 and 11.
The programme will be organised to effectively and efficiently monitor and generate a data bank on missing children and child tracking. The data will be co-jointly collated and fed by WCD and the Home Department that will further be amalgamated with the
central data bank at the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Delhi,” Misra said.
“The central government has planned to develop a comprehensive, integrated and live database of children living in uncongenial and challenging
environment and to develop a national portal on missing children. The government had visualised a need to constitute an interface between WCD and
Home Department, Haryana, in order to effectively monitor the missing children and implement child protection services,” Misra added.
New App Provides Abducted and Missing Children's Information to Authorities Reports Get Any Private Info
FBI claims it has already assisted in abduction cases
San Francisco, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/30/2012 -- It appears that law enforcement has a new weapon in their bid to save abducted children from their kidnappers: Smartphones.
U.S. Ambassador Jeffery Bleich played host to the launching of a phone app that will support the FBI’s efforts. The Australian Federal police, along with the support of the U.S. FBI, developed the application.
The app allows for parents to store important information regarding their child within the phones in the event of abduction. That information can then be accessed by law enforcement to increase the efficiency of the search-and-rescue process.
Bleich stated that the American campaign to save abducted children began on May 25, 1979, after a six-year-old named Etan Patz disappeared. The disappearance sparked outrage across the country, and Patz was the first child to have his face posted on milk cartons as a way to help locate him.
The smartphone app is noted as crucial due to the fact that 75% of abducted children are murdered within the first three hours of the abduction.
Using the application allows parents to preload photos, contact details, descriptions, as well as other important information onto the smart phones. The information stays within the phone until, in the event of an abduction or disappearance. They share information with authorities so it can be circulated widely in an efficient manner.
The database is updateable so that photos can remain recent. The Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Tony Negus, stated that the system is already operating with success, and is totally secure.
"The information is stored on your phone until it is needed,'' he said. “I encourage all Australian families to download the app.''
According to Negus, over 130,000 Americans had downloaded the U.S. version of the software since its release. The FBI had indicated that a number of cases had been assisted by the software.
"Almost 20,000 Australians under the age of 18 go missing each year,'' he said.
"This can be for many different reasons and, thankfully, most are located in one week - but imagine the anguish of that week for their families.''
Bleich stated that Australia had shared the “sophisticated and sensitive” source code, which allowed the apple to exist.
The application allows parents to pre-load information to be accessible and shareable for the authorities.
Australian and US law enforcement agencies have co-operated on a new app for parents to quickly find their lost kids.
Parents whose children go missing will be able to access a new smartphone application designed to help find lost kids.
The Australian Police Child ID app was launched by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in partnership with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Canberra on Wednesday.
The locally-developed software, which is based on a US version, allows parents to store information and pictures of their child on their smartphones, ready to hand over to police if they go missing.
Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the app was a great example of Australian and US law enforcement partnering to protect children.
"When a child goes missing, every second counts," he said.
US Ambassador to Australia Jeff Bleich said the app showed how technology being used to increase security.
"Nations devote vast resources to protecting our shores, our possessions, our national resources," he told reporters.
"And yet there is no resource that is more precious to us than our children."
Ofsted has released its first adoption statistics, and fourth annual fostering statistics, revealing thousands of children
went missing from foster care last year. (Click link below for more.)
Nineteen years ago when Judy Peterson’s daughter went missing she was armed with posters, tape and hope police would find her child.
Monday, she was in Calgary at the launch of a partnership between Calgary police and the Missing Children Society of Canada kicking off a national program to recruit corporations to help find youth who vanish.
“When Lindsey vanished nearly two decades ago, I went all over town on my own with posters and a roll of Scotch tape,” Peterson said.
“I believe that if this type of technology existed, we may have been able to find her or have answers.”
To date, the mother, whose then 14-year-old daughter, Lindsey Nicholls vanished from Courtenay, B.C., has neither.
“I feel like if it may be too late for us, but I hope CodeSearch will help other families,” she said.
Apache, WestJet, Tervita and Enmax are signed up— poised to quickly mobilize staff with an alert on mobile phones from police about a missing child in their area.
Petroleum Services Association of Canada is also on board with CodeSearch which recruits help coast-to-coast to be on the look-out or search for missing youngsters.
Police chief Rick Hanson, said while Amber Alerts are a good tool it comes with strict criteria — including a belief a child has been abducted or at risk of serious harm or death and must come with information on an associated vehicle.
CodeSearch only requires that a child be missing to mobilize partners.
“I can tell you, there is nothing more terrifying than for a family to realize their child is missing, no matter what we do it can never be enough,” Hanson said.
“The more eyes and ears on the look-out, the greater the chances we can quickly locate a missing child.”
Missing Children’s executive director, Amanda Pick, said the initiative will be rolled out nationwide.
Last year, 45,000 children were reported missing in Canada.
In Calgary, there were 3,840 missing person reports — of those, 2,391 were aged 12 to 17 and 193 under age 12
The bulk came home safe.
The www.valuablenetwork.ca site is a way citizens can help find missing kid, those signed up getting automatic postings to Facebook or Twitter accounts when one goes missing in their area.
New film focuses on media coverage in missing children cases.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reports nearly 800,000 children were reported missing last year.
The movie debuted at the The BronzeLens Film Festival.
The movie “What About Us?” looks at resources (or lack thereof) and media coverage in some missing children cases. It chronicles the critical aftermath of two abductions-- a young daughter of a well known athlete and the other, a daughter of a business man. Director Deatra Harris and actress Jasmine Guy sat down with Natasha to talk about the film's debut and the importance of finding all missing children.
Google's Public Alerts project is designed to deliver emergency messages such as evacuation notices for hurricanes and more. The project delivers relevant weather, public safety, and earthquake alerts when you search on Google, use Google Maps, and when you activate Google Now on an Android device. Recently, Google added AMBER Alert messages to this platform.
Now, if you use Google Search or Maps on a desktop or mobile device, you'll see an AMBER Alert if you search for related information in a location where a child has been abducted and an AMBER Alert has been issued. With this addition and increased visibility of these alerts, Google is hoping more people will assist in the search of children featured in AMBER Alerts.
The AMBER Alerts will provide information regarding the abducted child as well as other details as they are available including vehicle information or information about the alleged abductor. Google is working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to provide the AMBER Alert data.
Google is hoping to scale this service to additional countries and is currently working with Missing Children Europe and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
