Editorial

Govt Will Continue To Implement Measures To Recover Missing Children

State Minister for Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green, says the  Government will continue to explore additional measures to alert members of the public when a child goes missing in order to aid in their safe recovery.

“In 2015, we had 1, 900 children going missing. We saw a reduction last year where we had 1, 700 children going missing. Of those numbers, 90 per cent were returned or came back into the system. We want to move closer to 100 per cent…and we will constantly look at ways to get the information out there,” Mr. Green said.

He was speaking at a child abuse forum hosted by Webster Memorial United Church’s Advocacy Ministry Committee at the church’s  Half-Way-Tree Road location on May 11.

Meanwhile, Mr. Green is urging smart phone owners accessing Facebook, who now receive Ananda Alert notifications, to share the information with others.

The Government has forged a partnership with the social media and networking service through which missing children alerts are sent to Facebook users’ newsfeeds once a child has been declared missing/abducted. These alerts will include photographs and other pertinent information about the child.

Mr. Green said the partnership is in keeping with Government’s commitment to  strengthen Jamaica’s child protection system.

“What we have been trying to do in this new dispensation is to see how we…can reach more people. One of the central points of the Ananda Alert system is that no longer do you have to wait 24 hours to report a child missing,” he pointed out.

The State Minister said due to Facebook’s capability to quickly relay alerts and other information received, “it was a natural fit to see how we could get social media involved in a real way.”

 

“(So) once a child goes missing, Facebook can send out an alert within 15 minutes of getting that information. If you see an Ananda Alert on your Facebook feed, it probably means that a child has gone missing close to you that you can help. So we are asking people to share that information,” Mr. Green urged.

Article by: Douglass McIntosh
Photo from: www.jis.gov.jm

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