UK Justice Forum 🇬🇧
Disappeared and Abducted Children and Young Adults => Madeleine McCann (3) disappeared from her parent's holiday apartment at Ocean Club, Praia da Luz, Portugal on 3 May 2007. No trace of her has ever been found. => Topic started by: Carana on August 03, 2013, 09:01:33 AM
-
A few posts on another thread related to recommendations and methods concerning generating publicity for missing kids and keeping their profile high.
Lots of new ways have emerged since then, including this one:
'QR codes' replace milk cartons in quest to find missing children
Posted: 04/09/2012 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 04/09/2012 11:51:30 AM MDT
By By Julia Prodis Sulek
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)
Say you're sitting in a Starbucks and see a teenager who looks just like that picture on the missing-child poster you scanned with your smartphone in Safeway two weeks ago.
But you're not sure, so you whip out your phone and check.
Bingo. It's the girl. You click on the highlighted hotline number, which immediately connects you to the cops, who arrive in two minutes flat.
Forget those old forlorn photos on milk cartons. The latest big thing in the search for missing children are "QR codes," a bar-code-like "quick response" technology that puts missing-kid posters in thousands of people's purses and pockets. After Facebook and Twitter, the codes are the latest tools in the tech and social media box aimed at finding kids who vanish.
The day after 15-year-old Sierra LaMar disappeared on her way to her Morgan Hill, Calif., bus stop three weeks ago, a Santa Clara County sheriff's sergeant called San Jose, Calif.-based Child Quest International, suggesting that a QR code be put on Sierra's missing fliers.
Her friends and family also have been tweeting about candlelight vigils, Facebooking a variety of photos and videos of her and using social media to express sympathy and reach out to volunteer searchers.
Earlier this week, the KlaasKids Foundation encouraged people to swap their Facebook profile pictures with those of Sierra to keep her image in the spotlight in what they called an "online vigil." And volunteers have plastered her missing poster _ complete with QR codes _ across Northern California.
"The problem is educating the community on what a QR code is," said Child Quest's Anthony Gonzalez. "People who know about it rave about it. Others have never seen it and wonder, "What is this thing on the poster?'"
QR codes are printed squares of jumbled black lines and squiggles. When a smartphone equipped with a free QR code app points the phone's camera at the image, it links directly to a website with more photos of the missing child, information and hotline phone numbers. (Haven't seen a missing poster with the QR code? Go to http://uqr.me/missing-sierra-lamar and snap a photo of the computer screen!)
"It essentially makes the missing poster portable," said Stephen Watkins, a Toronto man who works with Child Quest and modified QR codes that were first developed by Toyota to track car parts.
The idea came to him, he said, when he was at a Walmart and noticed customers passing missing posters, glancing briefly and moving on. He is using QR codes and other social media to continue his search for his own two sons, who in 2009 were taken to Poland by their mother.
To humanize the QR code, like he did with his sons' and Sierra's, he embeds a photograph of the missing child.
Technology has come a long way since the milk carton campaign in the 1980s, devised by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. That campaign lasted six months and _ despite becoming part of the pop culture of the time _ was considered a failure, said the center's Bob Lowery.
"People weren't really paying attention to the images on the milk cartoons," he said. "The only ones paying attention were younger children enjoying their cereal."
When the center opened in 1984, it had a recovery rate of 62 percent for missing children. Now, nearly three decades later, that rate is 98 percent. "It's because of better awareness of missing children and also our ability to connect through social media, Amber alerts and all the tools we have," Lowery said.
Even as media interest fades, Sierra's family and supporters can continue to tweet and retweet and add sympathetic friends to their Facebook accounts to keep the story going. After three weeks, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department is still staffing its emergency operations center around the clock, staffing tip lines, putting GPS devices on their searchers, and keeping tabs on Sierra's so-far-dormant Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Robert McConnell, a computer programmer from Macedonia, Ohio, credits Facebook with getting him closer to finding his daughter. Even though he had full custody, he said, his daughter's mother took her to her native Indonesia and never came back.
"I thought my only avenue might be trying to get as many friends as I could in Indonesia on Facebook," he said. "I posted my daughter's pictures and everything and sure enough, about a year ago, I was contacted by a woman who knew her."
But the trail went cold when the mother and daughter, Bianca Damanik, now 9 years old, moved to somewhere near Jakarta.
But McConnell isn't giving up.
"I'm just hoping when she gets old enough," he said, "she'll go out and try to find me."
Read more: 'QR codes' replace milk cartons in quest to find missing children - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/outwest/ci_20356634/qr-codes-replace-milk-cartons-quest-find-missing#ixzz2atIr1VHL
-
Thanks for that Carana - how very interesting. The use of the latest technology as another tool for helping to find missing children is very encouraging.
-
Thanks for that Carana - how very interesting. The use of the latest technology as another tool for helping to find missing children is very encouraging.
That's also part of the constructive side of Twitter and FB.
A bit like the old adage about money... it's not the medium that's bad, but the use that is made of it.
-
That's also part of the constructive side of Twitter and FB.
A bit like the old adage about money... it's not the medium that's bad, but the use that is made of it.
Now do you all believe that all missing children people/children should have as much tax payers money spent on them as has been the case for Madeleine ?
-
Now do you all believe that all missing children people/children should have as much tax payers money spent on them as has been the case for Madeleine ?
Do you have any reliable information as to how much money is usually spent on a missing person's investigation and cold-case review?
Do you resent the enormous effort in trying to find a trace of little April Jones? Or do you think the police should have just assumed that she was dead and be done with it because other children may not have benefited from the same amount of effort at some point in the past?
-
And I was hoping that this thread, at least, could be reserved for useful information to help publicise missing people.
-
And I was hoping that this thread, at least, could be reserved for useful information to help publicise missing people.
I'm all in favour of that Carana.
What I asked yesterday to Chinagirl and as far as I know she didn't respond, do you believe the amount of money that has been spent from the taxpayer should be equally applied to all missing children ?
Surely that is a fair question ?
-
Now do you all believe that all missing children people/children should have as much tax payers money spent on them as has been the case for Madeleine ?
Have you considereed that this might be more than just one child lost (seven at least) and that it might not be about a single predator, but about something bigger? Way bigger.
Remember the Jimmy Savile case? We all thought that it would end there, with Savile ..... but .....
-
I'm all in favour of that Carana.
What I asked yesterday to Chinagirl and as far as I know she didn't respond, do you believe the amount of money that has been spent from the taxpayer should be equally applied to all missing children ?
Surely that is a fair question ?
Steven, maybe Chinagirl doesn't live in our timezone ... and has never even seen your post. Consider that.
Someone else gave a very good answer anyway.
-
Steven, maybe Chinagirl doesn't live in our timezone ... and has never even seen your post. Consider that.
Someone else gave a very good answer anyway.
She answered another question at the time, but didn't answer that one.
Well Sadie, should the same amount of money be spent on all missing children ?
As to Savile, a pure s..mbag. We will probably never know the true depths of his depravity, but he clearly operated with many others, including, allegedly of course, M.P.'s
-
The idea for this thread wasn't just about Madeleine. It could be any missing person and what can be done to help publicise the fact that they are missing and to remind people to remain vigilant.
There's a limit as to the amount of publicity (if any) that the mainstream media will give any particular missing person's case. Madeleine's case is exceptional, but it has also led to a higher profile of organisations searching for other people as well as spontaneous messages from people wishing to help in some way.
Social media can be very helpful and doesn't cost much.
-
Say you're sitting in a Starbucks and see a teenager who looks just like that picture on the missing-child poster you scanned with your smartphone in Safeway two weeks ago.
But you're not sure, so you whip out your phone and check.
Bingo. It's the girl. You click on the highlighted hotline number, which immediately connects you to the cops, who arrive in two minutes flat.
Did that scenario happen ? Is it a "look like" that could boost your memory ?
-
She answered another question at the time, but didn't answer that one.
Well Sadie, should the same amount of money be spent on all missing children ?
As to Savile, a pure s..mbag. We will probably never know the true depths of his depravity, but he clearly operated with many others, including, allegedly of course, M.P.'s
What is the relationship between Savile and this thread?
-
The idea for this thread wasn't just about Madeleine. It could be any missing person and what can be done to help publicise the fact that they are missing and to remind people to remain vigilant.
There's a limit as to the amount of publicity (if any) that the mainstream media will give any particular missing person's case. Madeleine's case is exceptional, but it has also led to a higher profile of organisations searching for other people as well as spontaneous messages from people wishing to help in some way.
Social media can be very helpful and doesn't cost much.
Why is Madeline's case exceptional ?
To me any missing person counts just as much as another.
Nobody should be placed on a pedestal above others.
-
What is the relationship between Savile and this thread?
Ask Sadie. She mentioned him first.
-
Did that scenario happen ? Is it a "look like" that could boost your memory ?
Several children / or perpetrators have been found thanks to high profiles.
-
Well, perhaps we could agree to leave Savile out of this thread.
-
Deleted out of respect for Caranas post, which I hadn't seen
-
Every bit about Savile being a s..m^^^. But did we know the depths of his circle of "friends2? It wouldn't surprise me if others didn't surface .... and if there mght be a few "untouchables" amongst the ones who dont surface
Enough money was wasted upon Karen Matthews, wasn't there? Yet people of your persuasion put her up as an example of how the Mccanns should have behaved.
Were you one who backed Karen Matthews?
Are you kidding me ?
'Yet people of your persuasion put her up as an example of how the Mccanns should have behaved.'
That is a truly offensive remark.
So to reciprocate, are you of that type ? >@@(*&)
-
This is Caranas thread and out of respect for Carana, I am not answering that
Tho I would like to.
I shall try not respond to anything that takes away from the thread title
"Publicizing missing Kids"
Too important a topic to ruin.
-
This is Caranas thread and out of respect for Carana, I am not answering that
Tho I would like to.
I shall try not respond to anything that takes away from the thread title
"Publicizing missing Kids"
Too important a topic to ruin.
You placed the offensive remark.
Do you withdraw it ?
-
No one ever imagined that a peaceful holiday could have turned into a tsunami disaster. People can get separated during a flood or fire or anything else. The Red Cross helps with this - as do several volunteer groups in disaster situations.
http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Finding-missing-family/International-family-tracing?gclid=CMrC1OWH4bgCFcJc3godFAMAZg
-
Several children / or perpetrators have been found thanks to high profiles.
Have you a concrete case of a child recognized thanks to a high profile campaign ?
-
The idea for this thread wasn't just about Madeleine. It could be any missing person and what can be done to help publicise the fact that they are missing and to remind people to remain vigilant.
There's a limit as to the amount of publicity (if any) that the mainstream media will give any particular missing person's case. Madeleine's case is exceptional, but it has also led to a higher profile of organisations searching for other people as well as spontaneous messages from people wishing to help in some way.
Social media can be very helpful and doesn't cost much.
Carana, I really like the faces and details on milk cartons idea ... and on buses, vans etc.
Maybe flood everywhere with these images in the early days, then when the impact is wearing off, desist for a while so the perp relaxes.
Then come in again, taking a slightly different approach, to re-awaken interest and briefly flood the place again with info. Keep doing this with periods in between for the perp to hopefully become less vigilant.
Suggest things that people should look out for, like a change in habits of the perp. New sheds and noises that haven't been heard before
The big trouble is that given time, the childs face will change almost beyond recognition. Difficult, isn't it.
Edit: spellings
-
No one ever imagined that a peaceful holiday could have turned into a tsunami disaster. People can get separated during a flood or fire or anything else. The Red Cross helps with this - as do several volunteer groups in disaster situations.
http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Finding-missing-family/International-family-tracing?gclid=CMrC1OWH4bgCFcJc3godFAMAZg
I wonder if these different volunteer groups have the facility to exchange and share information. If not maybe a government funded national computer based 'register' could be set up - where all the different agencies could input and cross-check information.
I can't say that I am very knowledgeable about this subject but it seems to me that the whole subject of missing people (of all ages) seems to have been a 'poor relation' to other matters in most countries and has been somewhere near the bottom of their list of priorities. If nothing else, the McCann case IMO has highlighted that situation and hopefully it will be recognised that serious changes need to be made. It shouldn't be left up to charitable organisations and volunteers to provide assistance.
-
80% of missing persons are in fact voluntary ones. It's emotionally hard for the family and friends, but people are free to change their life.
-
Have you a concrete case of a child recognized thanks to a high profile campaign ?
Several:
- Jaycee Duggard and Elizabeth Smith were found because they had never been forgotten by police officers.
I'll post the articles if I find them (some seem to have been taken offline, possibly to protect the victims)
- Shannon Mathews: someone reported a suspicion.
- Simon Jones: missing for 56 days - someone found that a little boy living with a man in a hostel did not seem normal and reported suspicious activity to the police.
- One of the Chinese abductions (which I posted a few days ago) resulted in a member of the public contacting the family. There may be many more of these, but I don't understand Chinese.
- Stephanie (Germany or Austria): someone found a little note that she had managed to drop near a recycling bin. Instead of letting the note rot in the rain, someone picked it up out of precaution and took it to the police.
- A young French adolescent who had disappeared from a camping ground.
That's just off the top of my head.
-
80% of missing persons are in fact voluntary ones. It's emotionally hard for the family and friends, but people are free to change their life.
There is a difference between adults making a life choice and vulnerable adults and children.
-
Several:
- Jaycee Duggard and Elizabeth Smith were found because they had never been forgotten by police officers.
I'll post the articles if I find them (some seem to have been taken offline, possibly to protect the victims)
- Shannon Mathews: someone reported a suspicion.
- Simon Jones: missing for 56 days - someone found that a little boy living with a man in a hostel did not seem normal and reported suspicious activity to the police.
- One of the Chinese abductions (which I posted a few days ago) resulted in a member of the public contacting the family. There may be many more of these, but I don't understand Chinese.
- Stephanie (Germany or Austria): someone found a little note that she had managed to drop near a recycling bin. Instead of letting the note rot in the rain, someone picked it up out of precaution and took it to the police.
- A young French adolescent who had disappeared from a camping ground.
That's just off the top of my head.
In none of these cases a member of the public identified a minor thanks to a photograph and called the police.
The lead to Elisabeth Smart was her sister who identified the voice of the employee/perpetrator. The Chinese found himself his biological parents, inquiring.
-
There is a difference between adults making a life choice and vulnerable adults and children.
Vulnerable adults ?
-
Quite a few resources here
http://www.missingkids.com/Resources
This may be a resource for anyone who is worried about a missing teen:
http://www.railwaychildren.org.uk/our-solution/where-we-work/uk/?gclid=CLeIm4ju4bgCFUld3godL28Aog#.Uf1FulPW_fZ
-
Vulnerable adults ?
"80% of missing persons are in fact voluntary ones. It's emotionally hard for the family and friends, but people are free to change their life."
Who are the 80% of missing persons that you are referring to?
-
"80% of missing persons are in fact voluntary ones. It's emotionally hard for the family and friends, but people are free to change their life."
Who are the 80% of missing persons that you are referring to?
Those stats are french and the 80% are minors (teens) and adults. What do you mean with "vulnerable" ?
-
Those stats are french and the 80% are minors (teens) and adults. What do you mean with "vulnerable" ?
You didn't state who the 80% concerned.
-
You didn't state who the 80% concerned.
What do you mean ? Their close families of course.
-
What do you mean ? Their close families of course.
Are we at cross-purposes, Anne?
I'd said:
You didn't state who the 80% concerned.
You said:
What do you mean ? Their close families of course.
But you'd said earlier:
"80% of missing persons are in fact voluntary ones. It's emotionally hard for the family and friends, but people are free to change their life."
??
-
Are we at cross-purposes, Anne?
I'd said:
You didn't state who the 80% concerned.
You said:
What do you mean ? Their close families of course.
But you'd said earlier:
"80% of missing persons are in fact voluntary ones. It's emotionally hard for the family and friends, but people are free to change their life."
??
??
As I replied to you who were those 80% (minors - teens - and adults) and you insisted "You didn't state who the 80% concerned", I presumed you meant "who are the people concerned by those 80% who intentionally disappear".
-
A few posts on another thread related to recommendations and methods concerning generating publicity for missing kids and keeping their profile high.
Lots of new ways have emerged since then, including this one:
'QR codes' replace milk cartons in quest to find missing children
Posted: 04/09/2012 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 04/09/2012 11:51:30 AM MDT
By By Julia Prodis Sulek
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)
Say you're sitting in a Starbucks and see a teenager who looks just like that picture on the missing-child poster you scanned with your smartphone in Safeway two weeks ago.
But you're not sure, so you whip out your phone and check.
Bingo. It's the girl. You click on the highlighted hotline number, which immediately connects you to the cops, who arrive in two minutes flat.
Forget those old forlorn photos on milk cartons. The latest big thing in the search for missing children are "QR codes," a bar-code-like "quick response" technology that puts missing-kid posters in thousands of people's purses and pockets. After Facebook and Twitter, the codes are the latest tools in the tech and social media box aimed at finding kids who vanish.
The day after 15-year-old Sierra LaMar disappeared on her way to her Morgan Hill, Calif., bus stop three weeks ago, a Santa Clara County sheriff's sergeant called San Jose, Calif.-based Child Quest International, suggesting that a QR code be put on Sierra's missing fliers.
Her friends and family also have been tweeting about candlelight vigils, Facebooking a variety of photos and videos of her and using social media to express sympathy and reach out to volunteer searchers.
Earlier this week, the KlaasKids Foundation encouraged people to swap their Facebook profile pictures with those of Sierra to keep her image in the spotlight in what they called an "online vigil." And volunteers have plastered her missing poster _ complete with QR codes _ across Northern California.
"The problem is educating the community on what a QR code is," said Child Quest's Anthony Gonzalez. "People who know about it rave about it. Others have never seen it and wonder, "What is this thing on the poster?'"
QR codes are printed squares of jumbled black lines and squiggles. When a smartphone equipped with a free QR code app points the phone's camera at the image, it links directly to a website with more photos of the missing child, information and hotline phone numbers. (Haven't seen a missing poster with the QR code? Go to http://uqr.me/missing-sierra-lamar and snap a photo of the computer screen!)
"It essentially makes the missing poster portable," said Stephen Watkins, a Toronto man who works with Child Quest and modified QR codes that were first developed by Toyota to track car parts.
The idea came to him, he said, when he was at a Walmart and noticed customers passing missing posters, glancing briefly and moving on. He is using QR codes and other social media to continue his search for his own two sons, who in 2009 were taken to Poland by their mother.
To humanize the QR code, like he did with his sons' and Sierra's, he embeds a photograph of the missing child.
Technology has come a long way since the milk carton campaign in the 1980s, devised by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. That campaign lasted six months and _ despite becoming part of the pop culture of the time _ was considered a failure, said the center's Bob Lowery.
"People weren't really paying attention to the images on the milk cartoons," he said. "The only ones paying attention were younger children enjoying their cereal."
When the center opened in 1984, it had a recovery rate of 62 percent for missing children. Now, nearly three decades later, that rate is 98 percent. "It's because of better awareness of missing children and also our ability to connect through social media, Amber alerts and all the tools we have," Lowery said.
Even as media interest fades, Sierra's family and supporters can continue to tweet and retweet and add sympathetic friends to their Facebook accounts to keep the story going. After three weeks, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department is still staffing its emergency operations center around the clock, staffing tip lines, putting GPS devices on their searchers, and keeping tabs on Sierra's so-far-dormant Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Robert McConnell, a computer programmer from Macedonia, Ohio, credits Facebook with getting him closer to finding his daughter. Even though he had full custody, he said, his daughter's mother took her to her native Indonesia and never came back.
"I thought my only avenue might be trying to get as many friends as I could in Indonesia on Facebook," he said. "I posted my daughter's pictures and everything and sure enough, about a year ago, I was contacted by a woman who knew her."
But the trail went cold when the mother and daughter, Bianca Damanik, now 9 years old, moved to somewhere near Jakarta.
But McConnell isn't giving up.
"I'm just hoping when she gets old enough," he said, "she'll go out and try to find me."
Read more: 'QR codes' replace milk cartons in quest to find missing children - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/outwest/ci_20356634/qr-codes-replace-milk-cartons-quest-find-missing#ixzz2atIr1VHL
this board is about what happened to Maddie Mccann and the case in question, NOT other kids or adults ingeneral, none of which are connected, so whatis the point of this thread on this forum apart from obfuscating and detracting, this is a Maddie missing forum,not a 100 k missing people forum
-
this board is about what happened to Maddie Mccann and the case in question, NOT other kids or adults ingeneral, none of which are connected, so whatis the point of this thread on this forum apart from obfuscating and detracting, this is a Maddie missing forum,not a 100 k missing people forum
Excuse me Reed.
This thread is about missing children
Itis entitled: Re: Publicising missing kids
-
Excuse me Reed.
This thread is about missing children
Itis entitled: Re: Publicising missing kids
So it deserves a forum of its own then as it relates to people outwith this case, might get more readership too. Under the board section called
Disappeared and Abducted Children and Young Adults
-
Perhaps, but not necessarily.
The McCanns have been criticised for how they tried to handle the disappearance. They were criticised for trying to publicise her disappearance, but if they hadn't, that would have been suspicous as well.
They didn't have access to a handbook right then to help guide them through the early days. Everyone just went by instinct.
There is a guide out there:
It seems that what they tried to do coincides with the advice given.
http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/PDF6A.pdf
Casual readers are unlikely to read a dedicated topic about resources for missing kids. However, a number may still be interested in the Madeleine case and may just read about the resources available.
It's a bit like first aid - people think they know what they'd do in a given situation, but in a panic, they're clueless.
-
It's a bit like first aid - people think they know what they'd do in a given situation, but in a panic, they're clueless.
This is very true. In a panic, people run around like headless chicken. The trouble with the McCanns is that they didn't !
-
Perhaps, but not necessarily.
The McCanns have been criticised for how they tried to handle the disappearance. They were criticised for trying to publicise her disappearance, but if they hadn't, that would have been suspicous as well.
They didn't have access to a handbook right then to help guide them through the early days. Everyone just went by instinct.
There is a guide out there:
It seems that what they tried to do coincides with the advice given.
http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/PDF6A.pdf
Casual readers are unlikely to read a dedicated topic about resources for missing kids. However, a number may still be interested in the Madeleine case and may just read about the resources available.
It's a bit like first aid - people think they know what they'd do in a given situation, but in a panic, they're clueless.
Thanks for that Carana - I've put it in 'my favourites' to read later. In the meantime on just glancing through I thought this was interesting advice regarding the first 48 hours of the search.
QUOTE
In the initial stages of the search devote your time to providing information to and answering questions from the investigators.
Once you discover your child is missing, you will desperately want help with the search. You may, in fact, wonder how you can possibly stand by and let others look for your child. But the reality is that in most instances, the best use of your energy is not on the physical search itself. Rather, you need to provide information and to answer questions.
UNQUOTE
Apart from their first frantic searches in the hours immediately after Madeleine disappeared - that is what they tried to do.
-
There is a guide out there:
It seems that what they tried to do coincides with the advice given.
http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/PDF6A.pdf
Are you suggesting they had read that guide before ? I find it hard to believe it.
-
Are you suggesting they had read that guide before ? I find it hard to believe it.
No, that is not what I said, in fact quite the opposite.
It just so happens that what they did do is the advice given by other parents of missing kids who came together to write the booklet to assist others.
-
The case of a child missing from bed has nothing to do with the Etan Patz case.
-
The case of a child missing from bed has nothing to do with the Etan Patz case.
Who said it did?