Child missing alert

[DennisA]

My Family and I were recently on holiday in Florida, a child went missing and an state wide alert was issued to all Mobile phone users with details of gender, age and description amd where they were last seen.

Can you raise this idea with your Local MP and your local Police Commisioner to raise the profile of the need for a similar service to be created by either the government, the regional police forces, the Home office and the <obile phone networks with some urgency.

Children go missing every single day and no one is addressing the issue or raising the concern. If a State like Florida can do it, then we can.

My local MP said it was an issue with GDPR but I pointed out to him, the GDPR rules applied when we were in the EU, now that we are not we can create our own rules and I can't see why a system like they have in Florida has anything to do with GDPR where a missing child is concerned.

Social media is also a fantastic medium, recently my Granddaughters dog bolted and was "Lost". We engaged with the Local lost Dog Rescue Facebook group in Aylesbury and within 12 hours he was spotted by Dog walkers and was reunited with my Granddaughter.
The response from Dog Walkers in Aylesbury was overwhelming.

If we can be that affective where a dog is lost, just imagine how affective we could be if a child goes missing.

a) I don't think "the authorities" should hold your number just in case a missing child is reported
b) even if "the authorities" did hold my number, I'd be worried that this would lead to random texts reminding me to be a good citizen
d) which "authorities" are we talking about? Who would send the texts?
d) judging by our local FB pages, by far the huge majority of missing children turn up after a few hours of gaming at their mates - there are lots of these false alerts round here. Which isn't to dismiss the huge anxiety and fear felt by the parents, nor the fact that some children go missing for far more serious reasons, but I wouldn't want to receive text for every missing child that FB tells me about. "The boy who cried wolf" springs to mind - I'd ignore the messages, and miss the crucial text about a child who really has gone missing, in a serious way.

They don't need your phone number to send out these alerts. They hold no information at all on you for them.

We now have UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

I am sure I read that something like this was (or is being) tested along with phone alerts for things such as severe weather warnings or major incidents such a a terrorist attack.
As far as I know it would be that a message would be sent to all mobile phones in an area automatically. You wouldn't have to register your phone number or details or anything because it would automatically go to all numbers.
I'm not aware if it has been successfully tested though.

They have your number already

I think a system similar was being tested on the Isle of Wight but not sure for what service?

They don't need your phone number to send out these alerts. They hold no information at all on you for them

Who is "they"?

The UK has an opt-in version www.lancashire.police.uk/faqs/missing-people/what-is-child-rescue-alert/

@Justkeeppedaling I assume 'they' would be the relevant local authorities for the situation.
I would have thought it would be that if a child going missing it would start with a 999 phone call to the police to report them missing. If then needed the police would then contact the phone companies (Vodafone, O2 etc) and request an emergency message is sent to all available numbers.
That's how I imagine it works. I don't actually know.

I signed up years ago but have never had an alert as no children have ever gone missing in my local area.

@Justkeeppedaling I assume 'they' would be the relevant local authorities for the situation

Doesn't really answer my question. Do you mean the Local Authority (capital letters), or other random local authorities (lower case).

Maybe something people could subscribe to if they wanted to, otherwise, it's the thin end of the wedge.

I think there's some similar alert system for countries likely to experience tsunamis. Japan maybe. I don't know how it works though.

The authorities would issue the alert, not individual people,?

@Justkeeppedaling I assume Local Authority/Local Council, The Government, the police. Whatever is relevant to the situation I suppose.

I've already opted in to the local version of this. It's been active for a couple of years.

@Justkeeppedaling I assume it would automatically go to all phone numbers from 1111 111 1111 to 9999 999 9999 that are currently registered for use so there would be no worry about someone random having your details.

Was it an AMBER alert? It's a nationwide thing in America and very well distributed through various channels

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_alert

In Hawaii they have the Maile AMBER alert

https://ag.hawaii.gov/cpja/mcch/maile-amber-alert/

It's a good system. I don’t exactly know how they get the message out to everyone's phones and things, but it's good that they do.

Please contact your MP and ask why we don't have a UK alert system like other countries.

The Police already use social media etc for alerts to any at risk missing person, not just children.

for children they must have permission from someone with PR to put out an alert, and certain criteria must be met. Quite often parents, ss etc don’t want an alert put out, so that’s that. The criteria are there as if they put out an alert for every missing child there’d be hundreds, and people would soon ignore.

sometimes it’s also better if the child doesn’t know they’re being looked for.

when it’s used in the US what’s the success rate for children being found by someone who has seen the alert?

i have a feeling in the uk the police/ambulance/ss/ hospitals are more coordinated in their response.

Why would GDPR be an issue - the information re the appearance and name of the child is presumably being shared with the parents consent, you can consent to your data being shared. That’s if it was considered use of data for business purposes which is arguable.

As I understand (and I’m no tech whizz) you can message the masses just by sending to those accessing the phone signals? Isn’t that the plan for emergencies etc like terror threats? We had “stay at home” messages during Covid. So no data is actually being stored.

So, poor excuse for NOT doing it. I think it’s a great idea.

The Local Authority don’t deal with missing children, what a non question? You surely understand the sentiment behind the notion “authorities”. I.e an organisation equipped and empowered to deal with a missing child.

I won't be contacting my mp over this no. The uk is nowhere near as vast as America and our data protection laws very complicated. Im Loathe to hand over anymore of my details to the government as they practically have my arsehole measurement anyway. If a child or adult goes missing in the UK procedures have to be followed and parental permission has to be sought first. And then it's put on social media and the news.
There really is no need or use for this in the UK.

parental permission has to be sought first

Given the parent will likely be the one notify in the authorities (likely the police) it wouldn’t be especially complex to ask if they can use the child’s details for a text alert? Consent is a pretty easy and quick issue to deal with.

I’m in a city in the northwest and personally see approx 2 children a day who have gone missing from our local area, mostly on our local newspaper page on fb. They’re always found within the week. I wonder how they’d meet the criteria for one of these alerts?

@Inthesameboatatmo I assume you only have an non registered pay as you go phone then?
I don't see the issue. It would be known that your phone number (example 0123 456 789) is registered in use on the (for example) Vodafone network but if you bought the phone with cash, never registered it and top up with cash then no one will have any clue that Vodafone 0123 456 789 belongs to you. So why would it matter if a missing child/flood warning/terror warning is texted to that number?

I am very happy to leave nationwide appeals for genuine cases of missing children in the hands of UK police.

I certainly would not recommend letting every dumped bastard and vindictive neighbour / OW being able to post on FB, malicious photos of children who are not "missing"; just escaped with their abused mother, stuck at home with mumps, on holiday with family abroad, etc.