Missing Children, Missing Lives, Missing Love?

AMBER alerts, the alerts many Americans get on their mobile devices, are one of the best solutions to finding missing children. After all, the first step to finding someone is realizing that they are, in fact, missing and may be in danger. Alerting the American population to this person in trouble is exactly what the AMBER alert does. The Department of Justice states that, “the AMBER Alert program as of December 6, 2024, has contributed to the recovery of 1,221 children,” (“Frequently Asked Questions”, Department of Justice). Now, maybe this does not sound like a large number, but imagine if each child belonged to a single family. That’s 1,221 families that got their missing child back. “The most common reason for an AMBER Alert success…is an individual or law enforcement recognizing the vehicle from the alert,” as an AMBER alert has descriptors attached to each alert (“2023 AMBER Alert Report”, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children). However, sometimes AMBER alerts can be false alarms, and some Americans may be worried that people are becoming desensitized to these alerts and dismiss them. Unfortunately, this is a possibility, but anyone who gets the alert will look at his phone, thus bringing attention to the missing kid, regardless, which is exactly what the AMBER alert is designed to do. AMBER alerts are one of the many ways the large amounts of missing children can be found, and due to the issuing of these alerts across the country missing children have been quickly located and returned home safe and sound.

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      While AMBER alerts are good individually, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is an organization that is crucial in advocating for missing children. The NCMEC is a non profit organization that is built on the foundations of finding every child and giving hope to families of missing kids. “In the last 40 years,” since NCMEC’s was founded, they have, “received more than 5 million calls with more than 426,000 missing children recovered,” (“Our Impact”, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children). The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children also offers help to any parents or guardians, who may suspect that their child is missing. This help allows missing children to be found fast as the NCMEC will work with law enforcement to locate the kid in question. As a non-profit, some may be concerned that the NCMEC may not be effective enough to really make a difference, but the NCMEC remains, “the nation’s largest and most influential child protection organization,” (“National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Home”, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children). The NCMEC has remained an effective force in finding children due to their large call centers and their compatibility with police, allowing missing children to be located swiftly.

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      Both AMBER alerts and the NCMEC are good resources for bringing missing children home; however, National Missing Children's Day is a preemptive campaign that teaches parents while also raising awareness for active missing kids. May 25th marks National Missing Children's Day that relights the fire under the FBI, NCMEC, the Department of Justice, and many other organizations to keep up the search for active missing kids. The FBI uses this day to, “reaffirm [their] commitment to investigating these cases and finding children who have been reported kidnapped or missing,” (“National Missing Children’s Day 2024”, Federal Bureau of Investigation). Along with reaffirming a public commitment, this day serves as a way to teach parents and guardians about child safety so no child will go missing in the first place. In the Department of Justice, National Missing Children’s Day, “is dedicated to encouraging parents, guardians, caregivers, and others concerned with the well-being of children to make child safety a priority,” (“National Missing Children’s Day: About Missing Children’s Day”, Department of Justice). The Department of Justice uses real stories of missing kids and professionals from service agencies to educate adults on child safety. Some may argue that resources should be better allocated to more recent cases of missing children rather than looping back to older reports. However, it is important to give light to all cases in the hopes of new leads coming out in the present that may not have been there in the past. Without National Missing Children’s Day, those leads may have been buried. After all, the best way to cure a social epidemic is to stop it from ever happening in the first place, which is what National Missing Children’s Day achieves yearly. 

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      Recall the ideal family, loving parents and fantastic kids. Heartbreakingly, one daughter has gone missing. In spite of the horrifying circumstances, an AMBER alert is sent out for the daughter, and then the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children gets involved. Successfully the daughter has been found and is safe, after which the family becomes involved in National Missing Children’s Day. Through this they become advocates for child safety in the hope that no family will have to go through their lived terrors. Children go missing frequently throughout the world making this a horrifying societal epidemic. As previously stated, in 2022, 359,094 missing children cases were filed, but at the end of the year 2022, only 30,522 cases were still active (“2022 NCIC Missing and Unidentified Person Statistics”, 2). That ends up being 328,572 children that were found and cases that were closed. Even so, these are not just numbers, these are real families and real children that may have gone under the radar if not for AMBER alerts, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and National Missing Children’s Day. While these organizations and systems are in place, many children are found and returned home, and, hopefully, someday, children going missing will not be a concern anymore.