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Using technology to help find missing children

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Published  September 8, 2023 11:07pm EDT
Missing Persons
FOX 5 Atlanta

New way to help lookout for missing, exploited kids

Using technology to help find missing children. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a new way to alert people to be on the lookout for missing kids in their area.

ATLANTA - The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a new way to alert people to be on the lookout for missing kids in their area.

The organization has helped law enforcement across the country find more than 450,000 missing children since 1994. One thing they do with all the children is push their photo out to the public as quickly as possible. They’ve done this through posters, billboards, social media, and now QR codes.

"It puts the most recent missing child images literally in the palm of your hand," said John Bischoff with the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children.

Just by scanning the QR code with your cell phone, you’ll be able to see photos of all the missing children in your area.

"These kids are out there. They need our help. It just takes the right person to help them out," said Bischoff.

Bischoff says on any given day there are about 7,000 missing children in the U.S.

"It’s a scary number. These are kids where their families don’t know their whereabouts," said Bischoff.

Bischoff understands the importance of putting out pictures of these children, in hopes that someone sees them or has information about them.

"We’d send out loads of printed posters just to keep engaged with the community to remind them this child is missing in your area," said Bischoff.

The QR code gets the images out faster and lets you see images of missing children within 50 miles of your location.

I did it from Marietta and the images of 51 missing children popped up with their name, age, how long they’ve been missing and the last place they were seen. By clicking on a photo, you can easily submit a tip or share the image.

"We know someone is going to use this QR code. We know they’re going to recognize something. All it takes is one set of eyes to be a hero," said Bischoff.

The QR code was just launched a couple of weeks ago... Now the national center for missing and exploited children is working on partnerships to get the QR code on water bottles, chip bags, storefronts, anywhere they can.

You can scan the QR code at: https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2023/new-posters-qr-code