PICTURE THEM HOME

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

The Campaign Challenge is Simple.

First -"take a pledge" to really look at the pictures of missing children you see.

Second - if you are a parent, make sure you have current, high-quality images of your own children for use in case of an emergency.

Pictures Work.

Even after almost two decades, people can be unsure whether they can actually play a role in recognizing a missing child from a poster and help to reunite that child with his or her family. Picture Them Home is a campaign to raise awareness about the power of pictures and their importance in the search for missing children. One child in six featured in the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's photo-distribution program is recovered as a direct result of someone in the general public recognizing the child in the picture and notifying authorities. Pictures work, and if more people took the time to look at them, more families would be reunited.

Look at the pictures.

How can you help? It’s simple and takes very little time. Whenever you pass a poster of a missing child, really look at it, whether it comes in your mail, is posted at your local post office, or you see it online. Don’t think you can’t help…you can. Make an effort never to be complacent about studying these pictures. One day, you might help bring a child home.

Next, make sure that you keep current, high-quality pictures of your own children, regardless of their ages, and update them at least annually. A recent poll of law enforcement found that they consider pictures to be the single most important tool in the search for missing children.

For more information about the Picture Them Home campaign and additional ways the public and private sectors can help call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's Hotline, toll-free, at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).

Note: This MySpace Missing Kids group is a personal volunteer effort provided courtesy of the group leader and is not an official site of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.