GRACE LLEWELLYN
Around 35,000 people go missing every year throughout Australia including 20,000 children under the age of 18.
Most children reported missing are located safe and well within 24 hours, however there are still a small percentage of children never found .
Common reasons for children going missing include breakdowns in communication, family conflict, domestic violence or mental health issues.
Only a small percentage of missing children are the result of stranger abductions.
The Australian Federal Police efforts to spread messages of missing peoples have improved in recent times due to social media broadcasting Amber Alerts.
However, the impact of stories reported in the media can be short lived as there is no progression reports on these missing people.
There are posters at every police station of missing people and even children who have been missing for a number of years, still have no updated reports of their whereabouts.
Single mother, Talia Kurittu would like to see more updates.
“As a mother of two young children (four and five) I would like to see the media report more on missing people and children in particular. It would be absolutely heartbreaking having to go through something as traumatic as a missing child,” Ms Kurittu.
“Any help whether it be volunteers, police or the media would be much welcome in my opinion because in situations like these you would want all the help you can get. I can see that sometimes media attention isn’t all good, reports can be misleading but if it’s reported on enough it would be more helpful for a better outcome.”
Currently there is an app called Australian Police Child ID App being designed to to help parents quickly provide identification information to police in the event their children go missing.
For more information about missing person contact: Missing Person Coordination Centre
