The Missing Children Epidemic Solutions

      Think back to your early childhood when you came home rushing from school or were exhilarated to play with your neighborhood friends. Most people can connect to a time as an adolescent when they were furious with a parent and had the thought of leaving. Packing up the flimsy backpack and stopping at the front door only to realize there's no place like home. In the United States, about 2,300 kids go missing every day, that’s about 839,500 kids missing each year (Kraut). Most of these children were missing without the decision to flee their homes. The earliest records of missing children can be found in the 1980s. Most of the causes for missing children back then were ransoms demanded by the kidnappers for money from parents (Tompkins). Nowadays, they have their market of purchasing and selling children from other people. The crisis of missing children has been a constant epidemic for decades, and it should be battled by teaching children kidnapping safety, monitoring the physical abuse present in some households, monitoring mental health, and providing support for affected children.  

      A solution to solving and preventing a child from going missing is teaching them safety problems such as not taking anything from strangers, always being near a trusted adult, and knowing a parent’s contact. According to Judy Schaechter, a professor for the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, says, “Fortunately, child abductions by strangers on the street or online are rare. Most kidnappings occur by people, a child, knows―usually a relative without custody” (Schaechter). Implementing safety precautions in a child's life will protect them from at least turning down strangers’ advances. School systems start teaching kids about safety from ages seven to nine and show experimental videos of children turning down strangers' offers. This is an immense help even if parents do not know how to word what to say to their kids. There are also family members without permission to be around the child. They should be able to wait for their parents to approach them if they said they were there to pick them up. Although it is uncommon for child abduction to be composed by a stranger, as research says, most people perceive it as strangers seizing children without relation (Schaechter). Adolescents start to recognize faces when they hit the toddler stages of life. They know who their parents and siblings are as long as they see them frequently.  

      Another solution to the missing child epidemic is handling physical abuse within households. Many children grow up in broken homes which affects the rate at which they run away. The buildup of stress and anger can cause a child to desire to leave home. The feeling of wanting to be loved is not in their own home but in the hope of discovering it somewhere else or with someone they may already know like a friend or a close relative. Lorena Ferguson, the author of the research article “Risk Factors and Missing Persons: Advancing an Understanding of ‘Risk” states that, “Trauma exposure was also revealed as a risk factor amongst some studies, whereby ongoing trauma, including physical, sexual, or domestic abuse, increases the risk of going missing” (Ferguson). About one-third of the children that go missing are abused. This is why Americans should be concerned about youth today. The missing children epidemic continues growing because of what happens in the homes. There needs to be a better response call for people who witness these things happen to children. Then again, the American system is broken, and it would be challenging for the child to get help. Furthermore, people should not overlook that children running away due to personal feelings is not the only way, but it can mean the family has something to do with it.     

      Another option to solve the missing children epidemic is offering children the mental support they need. As well as that, providing mental health resources will help them address the issues within if they can't open up at home. In the article” Missing and Abducted Children” the author Michael E. Kraut points out that, “he or she may have difficulty communicating with others about their needs, identity or home address. This can place the child in a greater degree of danger. These children are especially susceptible to being abducted, and it may be harder to return them to their parents when they are lost” (Kraut). People need to emphasize the internal part which is the growing rate of mental health in children. Children are to be prone to be abducted because of what may go on in a broken home. It causes them to leave and be exposed to the dangerous world that has predators in it. For all of the solutions listed above, children need parents or guardians to explain to them the safety steps. A world full of technology and things being said on the internet can affect a kid, and they might not have someone to rely on to speak about what's going on in their life. Good or Bad children need support to have an active lifestyle physically and internally.    

      Various solutions to the missing children epidemic can have an impact on this world as being expressed. Moreover, the missing children epidemic is growing continuously, and new deceptive ways are developing to abduct children along with the outspoken issue of mental health within kids and the early teen years. About 2,300 children go missing every day and without a report of a child in about 24 hours they are presumed deceased (Michalitsi-Psarrou). This culture needs to stop because there is little effort to find these children. If people take steps to learn about the solutions to saving children, it can transform America for the better. 

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Citations

      Ferguson, Lorna. “Risk Factors and Missing Persons: Advancing an Understanding of ‘Risk.’” Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, vol. 9, no. 1, Mar. 2022, p. 101. DOI.org (Crossref),  https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01113-8. 10 February 2023  

      Kraut, Michael E. “Missing Abducted.” Child Crime Prevention & Safety Center, 2022, https://childsafety.losangelescriminallawyer.pro/missing-and-abducted-children.html.  

      Michalitsi-Psarrou, Ariadni, et al. “Agent-Based Simulation to Measure the Effectiveness of Citizen Sensing Applications—The Case of Missing Children.” Applied Sciences, vol. 11, no. 14, July 2021, p. 6530. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.3390/app11146530.  

      Schaechter, Judy. “Help Prevent Your Child from Going Missing: Safety Tips from the AAP.” HealthyChildren.org, 2018, https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/all-around/Pages/Preventing-Child-Abductions.aspx.  

      Tompkins, Ronald. “Charley and Walter Ross: The First People Kidnapped in the U.S.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, 1993, https://www.ushistory.org/germantown/upper/charley.htm.