I’m seeing information about children who have been missing for over a month and I just wanted to share something with you. The sooner you report a child missing the sooner cops can get involved. If the police do not want to get involved, go to social media. Make sure you know which sites your children use. Get to know their handles, and the handles of their friends. If you have multiple computers keep one logged in under one of their sites so you can see movement. Also tag their phones, it might give you an idea of where they are. One of the things I ask for, which is perhaps my children’s most dreaded request, is the stand still photo.

I make them take a photo of themselves with their surroundings in view. If they are talking to someone new on social media, I make them do the cup on head photo. Why the cup on head? Easy, you might have a lot of photos in your house, but chances are you will not have any with you holding a cup on your head. You can always pick another authenticator but that’s is my thing!

Have photos of your children ready to go, you would be surprised how many people do not have updated photos of children. Keep those photos near and ready. Also make your children get school ID cards, it will help for jobs and stuff like that, until they can get state Ids.

If it is a child that might not be in your custody all the time and you suspect the child is a victim of any type of abuse you want to get Child Protective Services involved ASAP. They will be able to do a joint investigation with local law enforcement and perhaps even send out a CSCAL depending on where you live. Again you can do this if you think someone was put in harm’s way because their guardian didn’t do a good job taking care of them, this is something you would want to let CPS know. Remember we are living in a dangerous world, and there are sex trafficking hubs in every city. These traffickers are at the malls, bus stations, parks and even lurking at places like food courts.

So, try the social media sites, know the social media sites, know the friends and if you get nothing, call the cops. Do not wait for hours, call after you get no reply from the social media sites. Hey, if she comes home a few hours later all the better, but you never want to wait a day to report or even half a day to report. Report your child as a runaway if you have to, just report. If all else fails, go to social media. Use Twitter, Facebook and anything else you can get your hands on. Tweet it to the world.

Get to know sites like http://www.missingkids.org/ and local runaway shelters in your areas. If there is an issue with a minor running away, it might be time to get help from some of the local community providers who provide counseling. https://www.1800runaway.org/