What you should know when Talking About Missing Children

Many of you are very concerned when talking about the subject of missing children, but, unfortunately, reality requires parents to know a lot concerning their disappearances. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCEMC), there are approximately four thousand unresolved cases of missing children in the United States.

NCEMC, in collaboration with the Department of Justice and security forces, provides families that have suffered the loss of a child with technical resources and forensic specialists who will analyze all possible clues. This type of support is critical to find the missing child and can help find the child within the first hours of the disappearance.

When a missing child is reported to law enforcement, federal law requires that the child’s name be reported to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC). According to FBI’s data, in 2015, 460,699 missing children were entered into the NCIC, similar to 466,949, that were entered in 2014.

Specialists acknowledge that such information may not be accurate because when a child runs away from home several times a year, the child’s name is entered more than once into the system. It is important to know this, especially when the statistics reveal that there are about two thousand cases of child disappearances every day. Of those, 80 per cent are children who run away from home, while less than one percent are related to abductions. But not all news is sad because of those two thousand cases registered daily, 99 per cent of them are successfully resolved in a short period.

NCMEC statistics reveal that it assisted the police with more than 13,000 cases as listed below:

Case Type:
– Eighty-six percent were runaways who were in danger.
– Ten percent were abductions by a relative.
– Two percent were abducted and injured.
– One percent were abducted by a non-relative.
– One percent missing were young adults, ages 18 to 20.

During the past 32 years, NCMEC has circulated billions of photos of missing children, assisted the police to find more than 200,000 children and facilitated the training of more than 300,000 professional law enforcement and healthcare professionals. It has provided resources and emotional support to more than 57,000 families of missing and exploited children.

What your child should know

• Their full name, address and home/cell telephone numbers.
• How and when to call 911.
• Instruct children to keep doors locked and not to open doors to talk to anyone when they are home alone.
• Remind children not to play outside by themselves.
• Teach children to ask for permission before leaving home.
• Remind children that it is okay to say no to anything that makes them feel scared, uncomfortable or confused.
• Teach children never to get into a car or truck.
• Teach children how to get help in public places.
• Caution children not to post online revealing information or inappropriate photos of themselves or their friends.
• Keep the computer in a high-traffic area of your home and establish rules concerning your child’s online activities and cellphone use.