[Reader Contribution] Do You Know Missing Children’s Day?

Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency Women's and Youth Division, Child and Youth Section, Jogeumjae

May 25th of every year is World Missing Children’s Day. On May 25, 1979, in New York, USA, a six-year-old elementary school student named Ethan Patz was kidnapped and murdered while on his way to school.

In 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan declared this day as World Missing Children’s Day, and since 2007, South Korea has established Missing Children’s Day to raise awareness and efforts for missing children prevention and related issues.

On March 6th, a partial amendment to the “Act on the Protection and Support of Missing Children,” proposed by Representative Lee Myung-soo, passed the National Assembly plenary session. The main points of the amendment are to designate “Missing Children’s Day” as a legal commemorative day and to designate the week including “Missing Children’s Day” as Missing Children’s Week, aiming to raise social responsibility for missing children and create a safer society through prevention of child disappearances.

Approximately 20,000 missing child reports are filed annually in South Korea, with 21,551 cases reported last year. Especially in May and June, when outings are frequent, the highest number of missing children cases occur. In other words, as the weather warms up, more attention is needed.

Since 2012, the National Police Agency has been operating a “Pre-registration System for Fingerprints and Other Information” to prevent disappearances. By pre-registering children’s fingerprints and photos in the police missing persons information system, registered data can be used to quickly locate missing children.

When pre-registered, missing children are found within an average of one hour, whereas it takes an average of 81.7 hours when not registered, demonstrating the system’s significant effectiveness.

To pre-register, families can bring documents proving their relationship to the nearest police station or community service center, or easily register at home using the “Safe Dream” smartphone application. Given the current practice of social distancing due to the COVID-19 virus, using the Safe Dream app is expected to be very useful.

There is an African proverb that says, “It takes a whole village to raise a child.” This emphasizes that caring for and educating a child to grow up healthy is not only the responsibility of one family but also requires the interest and affection of neighbors and the community. On Missing Children’s Day, we hope many people will pay attention to and watch over missing children around us.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.