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Jamaica Augments Missing Child Prevention and Recovery Efforts with Facebook Alert System

The month of May is Child Month in Jamaica

-- an official designation that has been embraced

over the years by non-governmental organiza-

tions (NGOs) and the public in general. In light of

ongoing concerns over the welfare of children in

Jamaican society, the National Child Month Com-

mittee (which dates back to 1953) chose this

year’s theme as “Take Action! Break the Chain of

Abuse Against Children.”

On May 1, the Jamaican government and Face-

book embarked on a partnership to broaden the

reach of missing children alerts on the island --

the first time that Jamaica has harnessed social

media for this purpose. Although Jamaicans and

others have often used social media informally

to post pictures of missing adults and children,

there are inherent dangers, including possible

legal problems, associated with this. Jamaica is

working on creating a more efficient system that

will include the more than 1.2 million Jamaicans

currently using Facebook.

The issue of missing children is far more com-

plex than one might think. In Jamaica, as in other

countries, the factors that lead to a child’s disap-

pearance may include human trafficking, border

security, and parental custody issues.

However, according to the Global Missing Chil-

dren’s Network (GMCN) -- which has 25 member

countries, including Jamaica -- there are few

reliable statistics on missing children around

the world. In many countries, such statistics are

not available at all, and neither are missing child

alert protocols. The GMCN suggests the issue is

further complicated by the lack of a clear, univer-

sal definition of “missing children”.

At least in Jamaica, there has been a docu-