Friday, May 25 marked National Missing Children’s Day in the United States. In honor of that observance, the FBI has released a new version of its popular Child ID App for Android mobile phones. The iPhone version of the app, launched in 2011, has already seen more than 121,000 downloads.
The FBI’s Child ID app is a free and easy-to-use option for parents who want to have immediate access to their children’s information should a child become lost. The app allows parents to create profiles for each child in the family and to take or import pictures of each child. The pictures can be updated as frequently as the parents wish to do so. This is a particularly handy feature if a family is traveling or will be in crowded areas such as amusement parks, large sporting events, or concerts. In the event that the child disappears, parents will be able to show law enforcement officers exactly how the child looked and what he or she was wearing on that day.
The app also prompts parents to include information such as height, weight, hair color, eye color, and identifying scars or marks the child might have. All of this information is securely stored only on the parent’s phone, but it is a resource that parents can access and provide to law enforcement within seconds if necessary.
The app also includes information on how to keep your children safe and step-by-step instructions about what to do in an emergency.
The free app can be downloaded from Google Play (Android version) or iTunes (iPhone version). For more information, go to the FBI’s blog at http://www.fbi.gov/news/news_blog/the-child-id-app-on-android.
