Missing Children

There are many ways to get involved and become part of the Kidsearch Network

We all know had sad it makes us feel whenever we hear about a child who is lost, missing, or abducted. Have you ever wished there was something you could do to help? Do you want to make a difference? There are many ways to help. Read on to see where you think you could become involved.

Live in or near Miami?; If you live close to our headquarters, we need your help in a variety of ways.

First and foremost, we are in need of someone with Nonprofit Administrative Experience, perhaps retired, who can help us with Administrative duties. The position is one of responsibility for all aspects of corporate governance, including helping to form a Board of Directors, filing of all government paperwork, and helping with the development of resources available to the charity.

Grant Writers and Fundraisers with experience in holding events, soliciting in-kind and financial donations, direct mail programs, and other fundraising expertise are very welcome. We need your help.

Office help is also very welcome. If you know word processing, filing, and other office duties, we need your help.

You could even be trained to become a Member of the Search Team for Missing and Abducted Children!

Volunteer with Kidsearch, wherever you live!

Chat Room Moderators; We plan to open a chat room for parents of missing children and others interested in the topic can have live discussions. To do this, we need volunteers who are willing to spend time in the chat room and monitor discussions, keep out people who are there only to harass or obstruct the purpose of the room, and to help parents find the resources they may need. If you think you can donate some of your time Click here and send in the form with a firm commitment of what days and hours you would be willing to spend on this. When we have a few people who can fill a regular schedule, we will notify the team and open the chatroom.

Forum Moderators and Posters; Helping with the Message Boards is a great way to get involved. An active Forum draws more people and isn’t always easy to get started. By participating and posting in the forum you can help us get it active. If you have the time to post just one message per day on any topic associated with missing children and runaway teens, we appreciate your involvement. Click here to join the Message Boards If you have experience with Forums and would like to become a Moderator/Manager, Click here and send in the form.

Website Promoters; By going into other forums about missing children, runaway teens, and missing adults, and posting there to offer whatever assistance you can to parents and referring them to the Kidsearch Network Website or Message Boards by posting the link in your signature, you help more people find us and find the help they need. If they don’t know we are here, we cannot help them. If you want to help by searching for ways to get the website widely known, Click here and send in the form.

Website Designers and Programmers; Whether you own a company that does website design, work for one, or are in school and learning, you can help us in a big way. We want to have the best website about missing and abducted children on the web so we need your help! Click here and send in the form and let us know what type of experience you have and what you are willing to do to help us achieve our goals.

If you are interested in helping, call us at 305-372-1808 or Click here and send in the form.

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The following is posted about the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the NCMEC, at the Louisville, Kentucky Courier Journal Newspaper Website.

CHARLES B. WANG INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S BUILDING, 699 PRINCE ST., ALEXANDRIA, VA. 22314-3175.

Annual funding: $30 million federal; $10 million in private funds.

History: Created in 1984 as a private, nonprofit organization to provide services for families and professionals in the prevention of abducted, endangered and sexually exploited children.

Key facts: Has assisted law enforcement agencies in 111,300 missing-child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 96,900 children; trained 212,500 police and other professionals; and handled 1.9 million telephone calls through its national hotline, 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST) and 350,000 reports of child sexual exploitation through the Internet at www.CyberTipline.com.

www.missingkids.com — Web site with a database of images and information on missing children and prevention tips.

Source: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Note the key facts; I challenge the folks at the NCMEC to give me details to prove they assisted in the recovery of over 96,000 children. Posting the child’s picture on your website, then the child being found by someone, who knew nothing of the picture you posted on the Internet, is not ASSISTING in the recovery of that child.

When a child is reported missing, the police report it to the NCIC (National Crime Information Center). It then gets picked up by the NCMEC website and gets posted. If the police find that child 5 minutes later safe and sound, the NCMEC tells the public they have once again helped to recover a missing child.

The real keyfact here is that the NCMEC manipulates the statistics to justify 40 million dollars per year, when they have still not created a national search team for missing children, even though the Kidsearch Network has proven that direct participation in the searches for missing and abducted children produces results.

Fake statistics, unfortunately go unnoticed by the general public. I guess since I called your attention to the above where it says keyfacts, I should also call your attention to where it says “source”, since you must consider the source when determining the credibility of the statistics.

by Chris McElroy

PS: I would really love it if they ever responded, but they won’t. What I say is true. They know this blog exists. I invite them to write an article to dispute this anytime.

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The Kidsearch Network Private Investigator Network is a unique program made up of Private Investigators from around the country. This will be the largest network of Private Investigators in the US and will be the largest Missing and Abducted Child Search Team in the world!

The Kidsearch Network has built the model that works. Direct involvement in the search for missing children is a proven method of successfully recovering missing and abducted children. We have helped to recover more than 70 missing children. In 22 of those recoveries, our Search Team was directly responsible for the recovery of the child. Now it is time to take this model and reproduce it nationwide!

How does it work?
Whenever there is an Amber Alert or other notification of a missing child or child abduction to the Kidsearch Network, we immediately look up the closest Private Investigator in our Network. They then respond to offer assistance to the police and family to help search for the child. We have a manual that outlines the procedures to be used in each type of case. Many times it means using the media to help recruit volunteers that the Private Investigator will coordinate and send them out posting flyers, knocking on doors to show the child’s picture around, and searching the area near where the child disappeared. Other times, the Private Investigator will follow his own instincts to search for the child on his own.

How does becoming part of the Network benefit me as a Private Investigator?
First of all, finding missing children is a reward in itself. You get to be part of a program that works, one with a proven track record. I cannot begin to describe the feeling you get knowing you made a difference and saved a child’s life by being there. You’ll have to experience that for yourself.

The recognition you receive . . .
as a result of just being there to help on the search is a natural byproduct of joining the Network. The media is almost always involved in a search for a missing child. The Kidsearch Network being there to assist law Enforcement in finding them inevitably becomes a story all of it’s own, and you become our local spokesperson. If the child is recovered safely, the recognition you get for being there to help is great, but the times where you are directly responsible for the child’s recovery will give your Agency recognition beyond anything else you can do.

Initial Media Attention just for joining
is another benefit you receive. We issue a press release to all media outlets everytime we open a new chapter. When you join our Network, you become President of the new chapter and your agency becomes the Sponsor. We want our local representatives and spokespeople to get recognition because it raises awareness about missing and abducted children and what the Kidsearch Network is doing about it.

New Cases and Clients:
Recognition brings you more clients. Helping to solve missing and abducted child cases is the best advertising you will ever do. In addition to that, by being part of the Kidsearch Network, whenever we get cases in your area, they are referred to you. See more below.

Cold Cases, Non-Custodial Abductions, Runaway Teens, and Missing Adults
are also some examples of cases the Kidsearch Network is asked to help with. These are sometimes missing child cases where time has elapsed and clues are few. Other times it involves parental or non-custodial abductions where we just need to track down the adult who took the child.

In these types of cases, the Kidsearch Network refers the clients to the local chapter . . . you. We realize a Private Investigator has to pay expenses and make a living, so we ask the Investigator to develop a sliding scale based on the income of the client. This way, the families that CAN afford to pay for these services do and those that CANNOT still receive our help.

In emergency cases, we never charge for our services. The sliding scale only applies to cold cases, non-custodial abductions, runaway teens, and missing adults. The Private Investigator who gets each case that comes into the Kidsearch Network is based on geographical location. If it’s in your area, we call on you.

You also receive
1. Decals for your automobiles
2. An Identification Card to identify you when you arrive at the scene where a child is missing.
3. We also include a Web Page within the Kidsearch Network Website all about you and your Agency and your involvement in helping to find missing children. We promote your webpage in search engines for you in hopes to send you even more business.

How much does all this cost me?
Initially, the cost to you is $40. That covers a background check, verification of your license and qualifications, the decals, ID Card, and Webpage development. Then, you donate $10 per month to the Kidsearch Network. Any case fees you receive belong to you. Kidsearch receives no money from cases. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have. To Join or Ask Questions, Call 786-499-7798. Ask for Chris McElroy. or email us at missingkids@gmail.com

What if I want to become more involved?
Since we are a nonprofit organization and you will be President of a local chapter, there are several opportunities to do much more. There are fundraising events you can hold with some of the funds going to pay local chapter expenses, you can hold Child ID Days to help make sure families have all the right information detectives need to initiate a search if their child is ever abducted or missing, and you can teach parents how to prevent child abduction.

There are many other ways you can make the local chapter more active. It all depends on the level of commitment you are willing to make. To learn more about this project, call Chris McElroy at 305-372-1808 or mail in this form with your questions and we’ll call you.

To Join or Ask Questions, Call 305-372-1808. Ask for Chris McElroy. Or email us at missingkids@gmail.com

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Whenever someone types a message to you like LMIRL, don’t respond or if you do, tell them no way. They want to meet you offline and that is never a safe thing to do, no matter how long you have been chatting with this person.

That cute 17-year-old boy or girl you think you have been talking to may in fact be a 40-something child rapist who thinks you are his next target. This goes for boys just as well for girls.

Never give out personal information on the web. When you choose a username don’t put your age or your city into it. Shortandsweet is better than missy_miami_13 in other words.

You only think you are just talking to your friends online. You only think the pictures you post at myspace.com and other websites are viewed by your friends or other teens like yourself.

Not true! Places like myspace.com are a pedophiles shopping mall. I first advise you to not sign up there at all, but if you must, please do not put personal information that can be used to track you down there.

Things you NEVER give out on the Web

* Your name

* Your mailing address

* Your telephone number

* Your school name

* Never reveal anything about other people that may possibly get them into trouble

Scary stats

* One in five kids online is sexually solicited.

* One in four had an unwanted exposure to pictures of naked people or people having sex in the last year.

* One in 17 was threatened or harassed.

* About one-quarter of the youth who encountered a sexual solicitation or approach told a parent.

* Almost 40 percent of those reporting an unwanted exposure to sexual material told a parent.

SOURCE: Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation’s Youth

Quiz to give your parents

Ask your parents if they know any of this Internet lingo

1. BRB

2. DQMOT

3. KWIM

4. LMIRL

5. A/S/L?

6. P911

7. POAHF

8. SOTMG

9. TAFN

10. WTGP

Answers:

1. Be right back

2. Don’t quote me on this

3. Know what I mean?

4. Lets meet in real life

5. Age/Sex/Location?

6. My parents are coming

7. Put on a happy face

8. Short of time, must go

9. That’s all for now

10. Want to go private?

Tips for certain areas of the Web

CHATROOMS

* You may want to get together with someone you meet in a chatroom, but remember — people are not always who they seem to be.

* Never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone you first “meet” in a chatroom.

* Stay away from chatrooms that get into subjects associated with sex or cults or groups that do potentially dangerous things. Be particularly suspicious of anyone who tries to turn you against your parents, guardians, teachers or friends.

* Choose a name that doesn’t let people know if you’re a girl or guy. Just make sure the name doesn’t let anyone know anything about you or mean something that may encourage others to bother you.

* If someone you are chatting with starts offering you “gifts” or “money” for any reason, be very suspicious. Tell an adult, your parent or a teacher, someone, so they know about the situation. If they arew offering you gifts and money, they are after something. Be aware.

INSTANT MESSAGING

* Be sure you know who is receiving the IMs you send. Even if you do know the recipients, anything you type can be forwarded to other people. There is no way to “take back” something once you send it.

* Be careful about using video or digital cameras and sending images of yourself during an IM session.

* You don’t have to respond to any messages especially if they are rude, annoying or make you feel uncomfortable.

E-MAIL

* Be careful about replying to e-mail from people you don’t know. Remember, the sender may not be who he or she seems to be.

* By replying you are verifying a valid e-mail address to the sender, and that information can be used to encourage a person who may send inappropriate messages or put you on even more e-mail lists.

* Never send a photograph of yourself or any personal information to someone you don’t know.

* E-mail easily can be copied and forwarded to others. So if you do send personal information to friends, be sure they will respect your privacy.

BULLETIN BOARDS AND FORUMS

* Whenever you post, in most cases, your words are available for anyone to see, even if you are responding to a particular individual’s posting. Remember the basic rules, and never reveal identifying information about yourself.

* Some news groups contain sexually explicit illustrations, photographs and stories. This can be upsetting and uncomfortable to view. It should be avoided.

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