Missing Children’s Day recognized in Chatham-Kent

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Every year, more than 40,000 Canadian children are reported missing. May 25th was International Missing Children’s Day, which is marked each year in Canada since 1986 to honour children who are missing and renew efforts to reunite families.

This year, the Chatham-Kent Police Service in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (Canadian Centre), which operates MissingKids.ca, encouraged Canadians to get involved by talking to the children in your life about personal safety and joining in the search for a missing child.

“The Chatham-Kent Police Service would like to remind all citizens that the Internet provides many excellent learning opportunities for children. It also opens another door to predators who want to exploit and abuse children,” states ICE Unit member Constable Gary Oriet.

“Parents & guardians need to educate themselves to keep children safe and keep internet predators out of our real and virtual communities.”

Oriet said there are many ways for parents and guardians to protect their children:

– Be involved and know your child’s online activity

– Keep the computer in an open area of the home

– Remind children to protect their passwords, encourage them not to share passwords with friends

– Use caution with web cams, unplug web cams when they’re not in use

– Be sure of who they’re talking to before allowing them to turn on a web cam

– Make sure children are cautious with what they post online as the picture will be online forever

– Know their online friends the same way you know their friends which were met by more traditional means

“It is critical that Canadians keep missing children’s stories in the public eye,” said Christy Dzikowicz, director of missing children services at the Canadian Centre.

“The reality is that there is someone out there who knows or may have seen something. We have seen a number of families reunited because of one observant person taking the time to get involved.”

3 Ways to get involved this Missing Children’s Day

1. TALK TO YOUR CHILD about the Canadian Centre’s 5 Safety Habits for Life, a resource for parents to review strategies with kids of all ages to help keep them safe.

2. SIGN UP for MissingKidsAlerts – receive email alerts with critical information in the search for missing children to your personal device, business or organization.

3. Join the conversation about International Missing Children’s Day on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using #MissingChildrensDay or by sharing the Canadian Centre’s tweets and posts.

Anyone with information about a missing child is urged to contact MissingKids.ca online, or 24 hours a day by calling 1-866-KID-TIPS (1-866-543-8477) or police. All information can be shared confidentially.

Communications, Canadian Centre for Child Protection

Office: (204) 945-8074 Cell: (204) 801-2979

Email: communications@protectchildren.ca

About the Canadian Centre for Child Protection

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection is a national charity dedicated to the personal safety and protection of children. Our goal is to reduce the sexual abuse and exploitation of children, to assist in the location of missing children and to prevent child victimization. The Canadian Centre operates MissingKids.ca, Canada’s missing children’s resource and response centre.

About International Missing Children’s Day

May 25th was first proclaimed in the U.S. as Missing Children’s Day in 1983, following the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz on May 25, 1979, from New York City. In 1986, the Solicitor General of Canada proclaimed Canada’s first Missing Children’s Day, and each administration since has honoured this annual reminder to make child protection a priority.

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