Wrist Road ID - The Way to Go

Parents invented various ways to keep the children safe especially at the crowded place. While some hold tight their children's hand, some were seen using a strap to connect between them and their children. There is another way that may be quite effective to keep our children safe. 

While the hand holding and using of the strap are seen more to ensure the children do not get separated from us, this other way that we are going to share with you serves as a tool to reconnect our children with us in case they are separated from us, mostly at the crowded places.

Wrist Road ID is what we would like to share with you. 

Wrist Road ID is a wrist band that contains our personal details such as emergency contact number, address, blood type, etc. In fact it is up to us to put what details we want on the Wrist Road ID (refer to the photo above).

Wrist Road ID was originally created for athletes such as runners, marathoners, cyclists, triathletes, etc who do a lot of outdoor training. It serves as a "spokeperson" in the event the owner/athlete is found unconcious, perhaps due to accident during individual training. To understand more how Road ID started, click here.

Enough of the athletes story, let's see how Wrist Road ID can work for us to keep our children safe. First of all, as we mentioned earlier, hand holding or using the strap may be useful but it does not 100% guarantee that our children won't get separated from us. That is when the Wrist Road ID comes to our help. With the Wrist Road ID on our children, they will have information about the parents such as the contact number, in case of accident, it will have our blood type. Hence, when the child goes missing, it will be easier to reconnect with us as the person who found our child will be able to immediately contact us.

Something to ponder.It is never expensive when it comes to our children's safety.

4 Tips to Keep Your Kids Safe Online

We posted an article and a youtube video earlier about the children's safety online. The article titled "Our Children's Activities Online...Do We Care to Know?" encourages parents/guardians to be more proactive and bother to know about what our children do online. Now we want to share the tips about how to keep our children safe online. Knowing what they do online is one thing and keeping them safe is another thing. The two compliments each other.

This generation of kids spends more time online than any generation before it, which makes it increasingly hard to protect them from online dangers. According to a 2010 study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 93% of teens use the Internet, and the National Crime Prevention Council found in 2008 that on average, adolescents 18 and younger spend around 18 hours per week online. So how do you protect your kids without spending all your time standing over their shoulder? Here's a quick guide to keeping your kids safe online: 

Open Communication

The biggest thing parents can do to help keep their kids safe online is to talk to them about what they do, see and experience there. Keep the conversation open, and be sure they know they can come to you if they see or experience anything that worries them. If you explain your rules and worries, kids will be better prepared to help themselves stay safe online.

Filtering Inappropriate Content

Many parents worry about the material their kids are able to access online, and with good reason. There are hundreds of millions of websites online, and some are full of information that may not be suitable for young kids or even older teenagers. In a study by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2006, 34% of young people reported seeing sexual materials online that they did not want to see. Many parents use parental control software, at least while kids are young to block some of the less appropriate material. Most operating systems (like Windows or Mac OSX) including filtering capabilities, or you can add on a separate application like Net Nanny to help out.

Social Network Safety

Though kids under the age of 13 are not allowed to have profiles on most large social networks, including Twitter and Facebook, it's fairly easy to get around this rule, and many kids do. Consumer Reports projected in 2011 that around 7.5 million of Facebook's users were under the age of 13. We encourage parents to enforce the sites' rules about underage members if they can. There's plenty of time for Facebook later. If you're concerned your pre-teen has a profile he or she's not telling you about, you can check your computer's history or use parental control software to track activity.

Facebook also does its best to filter out underage profiles, flagging users who mostly have much younger friends to be sure they're the age they claim to be and responding when other users flag underage profiles.

For teens between 13 and 17, Facebook automatically imposes stricter privacy settings than those it uses for adults, so be sure your child is using the correct birth date on signup. According to Facebook's customer service department, the profiles of minors are automatically hidden from public search and Facebook restricts tagged photos and posts to just your child and his or her friends, at the most.

Sharing Information Online

This brings us to the importance of talking to teens about sharing information online. As many people have learned in the last few years, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other websites are public places, and information you post there can and will be seen. Even after a post or a photo is deleted, it can be hard to wipe it completely. For the sake of their online reputations, it's important that kids and teens understand that what they share online can form a permanent record. If they'd rather a parent, grandparent, teacher or employer not read something, they shouldn't post it online.

If you'd like to see just what your child's profile looks like to a stranger or a specific friend, just ask your child to log in and then use the "View As" link at the top of the timeline to see what shows up. We also recommend that parents "friend" teens on Facebook and check in to see what they're posting regularly.

While it's impossible to completely monitor everything your kids do online, these steps will help keep your kids safe and informed while they are on the web.

This article is taken from here

Key to Avoid Child Kidnapping

"Better Be Safe Than Sorry"

It doesn't take a lot of our time and it doesn't cost us much to be safe. But more often than not, we take things for granted and we choose to be sorry than safe.

Think about this: -

1. Should we leave our children in the car, locked, by themselves without adult supervision just because it trouble us to bring them with us?

2. Should we ask our children to go to the shop on their own without being accompanied by adult just because we choose not to go on our own?

3. Should we let our child to go to the playground by themselves and play without adult supervision just because we want to stay at home and feel kinda boring to be at the playground?

4. Should we let our children to play by the roadside on their own just because we want to be seen as a "cool" parents that gives freedom to our children?

5. Should we leave our children with someone whom we know for a very short period of time other than maid and babysitter just because we thought it would be safe to do so?

Think of whether we have done any one or more of the above. If the answer is yes to any of the questions above, DO NOT ever think that we did the right thing. We were just lucky that nothing bad happened.

Remember this! If we do not bother about our children's safety, at least think of Section 31(1) of the Child Protection Act 2001 that provides fine of up to RM20000 or imprisonment of up to 10 years or both to those who has the responsibility over child but found to have abused, neglected, abandoned or exposed the child in a manner likely to cause him physical or emotional injury or caused or permitted him to be so abused, neglected, abandoned or exposed or sexually abused the child or caused or permitted him to be so abused.

Kanak-kanak Adalah Rapuh

Kami telah nyatakan sebelum bahawa kanak-kanak adalah rapuh dan tidak dapat membezakan yang mana baik dan yang mana buruk. Mereka amat mudah terpengaruh dengan anasir-anasir jahat di luar sana yang boleh melekakan mereka. 

Maka menjadi peranan kita sebagai ibubapa/penjaga untuk mengawasi segala tingkah laki dan gerak geri mereka. Tidak salah dan bukannya susah untuk mengambil tahu aktiviti seharian anak-anak kita dan dengan siapa mereka berkawan. Bertindak cepat sebelum terlambat.

Berita diambil dari sini

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Termakan hasutan kawan bagi mendapatkan wang dengan cara mudah, seorang kanak-kanak lelaki berusia 11 tahun berasal dari daerah ini bertindak nekad melarikan diri dari rumah lebih 10 kali sejak hampir dua tahun lalu untuk menjadi pengemis di beberapa negeri.

Malah, kanak-kanak yang dikenali sebagai Shah itu meninggalkan persekolahan semata-mata mahu mengikut kenalannya, seorang warga asing berusia 20-an, menjadi peminta sedekah di Pulau Pinang, Kedah, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka dan Johor.

Bagaimanapun, Shah kini insaf dan kesal dengan perbuatannya selepas ditangkap ketika asyik bermain di pusat permainan komputer di Melaka sebelum diserahkan kepada keluarganya, Julai lalu. 

Sepanjang tempoh menjadi pengemis dan melarikan diri dari rumah itu, kanak-kanak terbabit menginap di hotel murah yang dibayar menggunakan wang hasil mengemis selain menjual surah Yasin kepada orang ramai dengan harga RM3 senaskhah.

Shah berkata, pendapatan diperolehnya antara RM60 dan RM200 sehari dibahagikan dengan rakannya selain diasingkan untuk membayar hotel, membeli pakaian serta makan.

Held for Kidnapping Teen

May justice be served and may the culprits be punished accordingly for the heinous crime they committed. Obviously there are things we can learn from this episode. The world is not as safe as it  used to be. So, always be careful and be alert with your surroundings. Do not take things lightly. Better be safe than sorry.

News take from here

ALOR SETAR: Police have arrested a division chief of a political party over the kidnap of a 13-year-old boy here two weeks ago.

The temple building contractor, who is in his 50s, was nabbed after attending the party's state liaison committee meeting in Sungai Petani on Saturday.

Four of the five suspects arrested earlier were his workers.

Kedah CID chief Assistant Comm Zakaria Ahmad said the suspect was arrested in front of a restaurant in Jalan Sekerat in Sungai Petani at about 6pm.

“He and the other suspects have been remanded until Thursday to help with investigations,” ACP Zakaria said.

It was earlier reported that the boy, the son of a dermatologist, was kidnapped at about 10pm on Sept 25 after attending a tuition class at Kampung Pisang in Lebuhraya Darulaman here.

The kidnappers had asked for a RM500,000 ransom from the boy's family who reportedly paid RM350,000 after negotiations.

Police arrested three men at 2am on Sept 28 at a construction site at Taman Sutera in Sungai Petani while two were detained here a day earlier.

One of them was nabbed at a Hindu temple in the housing estate.

It was reported that police recovered RM349,700 which was taped to the temple ceiling to avoid detection.

Of the five suspects, aged between 30 and 50, one is a Myanmar national while another is a relative of the dermatologist from Tamil Nadu, India. The man was working as a driver for the family.

Remaja Hilang

Nama: Erman Fazli Hadi Kamin
Umur: 17 tahun
Tarikh hilang: 16 Sept 2012
Asal: Kampun Repoh Batu Kurau
Jika anda ada sebarang maklumat berhubung Erman Fazli, sila hubungi IPD Taiping di 05-8291222 atau Zulfazly di 012-4521130
Fakta kes: hilang selepas keluar rumah untuk ke tempat kerja. Beliau tidak hadir di tempat kerja pada 16 Sept 2012 dan hanya berbekalkan RM10 sahaja.

Remaja Hilang

Nama: Khadijah Binti Dzuliloniny
Umur: 16 tahun
Asal: Taman Saujana Bukit Katil Melaka
Tarikh hilang: 21 Ogos 2012
Sila hubungi 0196526478 atau 0139487311 jika anda ada sebarang maklumat mengenai Khadijah
Fakta kes: Keluar beraya bersama kawan lelaki bernama Saiful yang berasal dari Felda Neram, Kemaman, Terengganu

Konflik Rumahtangga Penyebab Kanak-kanak Melarikan Diri

Konflik dalam keluarga antara penyebab berlakunya kejadian kanak-kanak hilang. Walaupun mereka ini diklasifikasikan sebagai menghilangkan diri, namun harus diingat bahawa mereka juga terdedah kepada pelbagai bentuk bahaya di luar sana. Apa yang harus kita fikirkan ialah apakah punca kanak-kanak ini melarikan diri? Salah siapa? Sebagai ibubapa, hendaklah kita menunjukkan contoh yang baik kepada anak-anak kita.

Berita dipetik di sini KUALA LUMPUR: Akibat tabiat si bapa yang gemar memukul ibunya, anak perempuan pasangan berkenaan berusia 12 tahun menunggang motosikal tanpa lesen sejauh 40 kilometer (km) untuk mencari hiburan sebelum dicekup dalam Ops Samseng Jalan Raya di sekitar ibu kota, semalam. Kanak-kanak bawah umur itu juga berhenti sekolah sejak sebulan lalu kerana mendakwa tidak mampu fokus pada pelajarannya akibat krisis keluarganya.Ketua Unit Kuat Kuasa Khas Trafik Kuala Lumpur (U3K), Asisten Superintendan Azmi Wahid berkata, kanak-kanak itu yang menunggang motosikal jenis Yamaha Lagenda bersama seorang rakannya berumur 16 tahun ditahan untuk pemeriksaan. Menurutnya, pemeriksaan mendapati kedua-dua remaja berasal dari Kajang itu tidak memiliki lesen memandu dan tidak membawa kad pengenalan.“Siasatan lanjut mendapati mereka keluar dari rumah pada awal pagi menaiki sebuah motosikal milik ahli keluarga dan menuju ke Kuala Lumpur untuk mencari hiburan.“Mereka mengaku mencari ketenangan dan mengalami tekanan akibat tabiat bapa yang suka memukul ibu di depan anak-anak,” katanya kepada Metro Ahad, semalam.

Katanya, kedua-dua mereka dibawa ke Balai Polis Trafik Kuala Lumpur sebelum ibu bapa masing-masing diminta hadir untuk diberi amaran.Azmi berkata, turut ditahan seorang lelaki berumur 24 tahun yang bekerja sebagai pekerja landskap atas kesalahan menunggang motosikal dalam keadaan mabuk.

“Sebanyak 92 saman dikeluarkan selepas memeriksa 230 kenderaan dalam operasi yang dijalankan dari 12 tengah malam hingga 3 pagi,” katanya.

Life Imprisonment for Child Kidnapping

They deserve the punishment for what they did. But the punishment aside, just imagine what would happen to the child if... We are lucky that the child was returned to the family, but what if...? There are so many "what if", so many possibilities but the best that we can do is to prevent it from happening. Hence, the question of "what if" and other worse possibilities won't arise if we work together to prevent this from happening.

Be a concerned citizen. It is ok to be busy body in this situation. Prevention is better than cure

Georgetown: Sepasang kekasih dihukum penjara seumur hidup semalam selepas didapati bersalah menculik seorang kanak-kanak lelaki sembilan tahun dan memperoleh wang tebusan RM200,000, tiga tahun lalu.

Lai Khan Mei, 35, dan teman wanitanya, Gao Bingju, 25, seorang warga China, didapati bersalah melarikan dan mengurung mangsa di rumah di Taman Gemilang Ria, Bukit Mertajam, jam 5.30 petang, 19 Disember 2009.

Pesuruhjaya Kehakiman, Mohd Amin Firdaus Abdullah turut menjatuhkan hukuman 15 kali sebatan terhadap Khan Mei selepas mendapati pihak pembelaan gagal menimbulkan sebarang keraguan munasabah terhadap kes pendakwaan.

Wang pemberian rakan

Beliau berkata, mahkamah menolak keterangan Khan Mei yang mengatakan wang yang ditemui ketika dia dan Gao ditangkap di Genting Highlands adalah pemberian kawan-kawannya.

“Mahkamah mendapati keterangan dikemukakan pihak pendakwaan berjaya membuktikan identiti kedua-dua tertuduh terlibat dalam kes ini,” katanya. - BERNAMA

Translation 
 
A couple was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday after they were found guilty for kidnapping a child age 9 years old and secured ransom of RM200,000, three years ago.

Lai Khan Mei, 35 and his girlfriend, Gao Bingju, 25, a China national were found guilty for kidnapping and detained the victim in a house in Taman Gemilang Ria, Bukit Mertajam at 5:30pm on 19th December 2009. Judicial Commissioner, Mohd Amin Firdaus Abdullah further sentenced Kah Mei to 15 strokes of rotan as he was satisfied that the defence team had failed to raised reasonable doubt on the prosecution's case. 

Money given by friends

He further said, the Court dismissed the statement by Khan Mei that the money found with him when he and Gao were arrested in Genting Highlands was gift from friends.

"The Court found the evidences tendered by the prosecution team shows the accused's involvement in the case," he said. - BERNAMA     

Taken from here 

Our Children's Activities Online...Do We Care to Know?

Being online nowadays is a norm. In fact, it is not common for people not to have facebook account, twitter account or any other types of social media account especially among the younger generation.

When MfMC's volunteer, Mohd Khafiz Bachok did a solo cycling from Johor Bharu to Kota Bharu in August 2012 to spread MfMC's message, he stopped at 2 primary schools to educate the children about their safety. When asked how many of them have facebook account, more than half of the students raised their hand. 

Having facebook or twitter or any form of social media account is not an issue. The issue is what can and cannot be shared online. Or rather, what should and should not be shared online.  How safe is our personal information online?

Now, as parents and adults in the house, do we care to check our children's activities online? Children are naive when it comes to their own safety. They rely on adults to keep on reminding them. They share all sorts of their personal information and life online. They thought because it is password protected, all the information they posted online are safe. They are wrong. And if we, the parents and adults thought that it is ok not to check on their online activities, we are more wrong than them.

Let's watch the following video for you to understand the message: -

      

MfMC Activity...Spread the Message...Create the Awareness

Cyclists getting ready

Our first activity was a night group bicycle ride from Kuala Kubu Bharu to Fraser's Hill on the eve of our Merdeka day this year. About 20 cyclist joined the ride with another about 10 team members joined the cyclists in 5 support cars. We named the ride as "Merdeka-Raya MfMC Night Ride".

People asked about the ride. Why night ride? Why Fraser's Hill? What was the relevance of the ride and the mission? All sorts of questions. The answer is very simple. 

Some of us...just before we started the ride

MfMC had just been created in August this year by us, a group of triathletes, swimmers, runners, climbers and last but not least concerned citizens. We have been doing all these activities for years and of course for the fun of it. Then we decided that while doing these activities, we can still contribute to the society by doing it for a cause, for a reason and not just for the fun of it. Hence, we continue to do what we love doing and at the same time we are able to contribute something to the society.

It is about killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

Cyclists in action

We thought that doing a group night ride up to Fraser's Hill was a crazy idea. But hey! We are a bunch of crazy people. So, let's do it!!! It is ok to be crazy (in a good way) so long as we are within the safe boundary. Whatever it is, safety comes first

The first group reached the tower clock at 2:30am

 
We were supposed to start our ride at 9:00pm. But we plan, Allah decide. We finally started our ride 2 1/2 hours later. Our re-grouping session was at Gap, where we took a break of about 1/2 hour because from Gap to top of Fraser's Hill was a real climbing of about 700m elevation. Allah was with us and all of us reached the peak at the clock tower at about 3:15am on 31st August 2012. 

 

The pot luck and get together

We then had Raya pot-luck. We descend from Fraser's Hill back to Kuala Kubu Bharu at about 4:30am and safely reached Kuala Kubu Bharu at about 6:00am. Cycling down from Fraser's Hill in the dark was very dangerous, hence we put the bike on its car rack and drove down.

Getting ready to go down back to Kuala Kubu Bharu

Group photo

   

Missing Child - NUR FATIN NAJIHA BTE IBRAHIM

Nama: NUR FATIN NAJIHA BTE IBRAHIM 

Umur: 17 TAHUN 

Nota: HILANG sekitar jam 4:00 petang pada 25/09/2012. Kali terakhir dilihat di kawasan Seberang Takir, Kuala Terengganu memakai baju belang merah jambu/putih, bertudung hitam dan berseluar track. 

Sesiapa yang mempunyai maklumat berhiubung lokasi Nur Fatin Najiha, di harap dapat menghubungi ahli keluarga beliau di sini.

True story...A Gril Might Have Become Another Victim of Child Kidnapping

Child predators strike at the time and in the way we least expect. So, parents, adults...always beware and be alert of your surroundings, busy body about what your kids are doing, what they share on facebook or twitter or any forms of social media, where they go, who their friends are...in short, be a caring parents/society.

Read this article. A true story how a girl might have become another victim of child kidnapping.

ANOTHER month, another missing child, and suddenly we’re all fired up again.

But this will probably wind down and we’ll go about our own business. Until the next missing child, that is.

Just before eight-year-old Nurin Jazlin Jazimin’s battered body was found stuffed into a sports bag last September, when she was merely another missing child, The Star ran a story pointing out that she was just one among 17 children under the age of nine on the police’s list of missing persons who had vanished between January and July last year.

More children continued to disappear, the most recent being five-year-old Sharlinie Mohd Nashar.

So now the Nurin Alert emergency response plan is fast becoming a reality. The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry has proposed a technical committee to come up with a Child Protection policy.

The Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation has recommended a “Child Watch” comprising government officials and representatives from non-govermental organisations that would work closely with law enforcement agencies to keep a closer watch on the safety of children.

But as an Interpol (www.interpol.int/) paper on missing children has noted, there is no specific law in Malaysia that governs the reporting and handling of cases of missing children. Malaysian police make inquiries on missing persons under Sections 3 and 20 of the Police Act.

I think it’s past time for us to look at missing children as a national issue that requires a complete revamp and rethink of policy, people and processes, with a lot of emphasis on prevention. And I can probably make a good, reasoned argument for it too.

But to hell with reasoned arguments, because this time it’s personal.

It’s my daughter, you s.o.b.!

On a recent Sunday, my nine-year-old daughter received, on her handphone, an SMS which addressed her by name, and in a texting version of Bahasa Malaysia, asked her what she was doing, adding “abang rindu mu, bls yah,” or “I miss you, please reply.”

The kids were with their mother at the time, so she called up the number and asked the man who answered, who he was and why he was sending SMSes to our child.

It’s my daughter, you s.o.b.!

The man spoke in Malay, saying that it was probably just “the kids playing around.” Sure, could be. So my ex-wife asked, “What’s your name and what are your kids’ names? Do they go to school with my daughter?”

He hung up.

It’s my daughter, you s.o.b.!

She rang me and I immediately swung over, picked up the phone, told the kids to stay with their mother, and remembering stories of how child predators “groom” their prey by trying to engage them in conversation first, went to the nearest police station to lodge a report.

It’s my daughter, you s.o.b.!

I’m one of those lucky Malaysians, going by the number of complaints we receive in the press, who has had only good experiences with our men in blue. The ones I’ve met when lodging reports or being issued tickets have always been professional and polite.

A young corporal took down the details and helpfully wrote down the report for me. Then he asked, politely, what my purpose was in lodging this report.

The next morning, a sergeant contacted me and asked me to come over to the police station. He asked me for more information, briefed me on what they had done so far and what they were going to do next.

But he too, almost apologetically, asked me the purpose of my lodging this report.

With all the girl-children being abducted, you have to ask?

I want you to be as concerned as I am. I know you handle hundreds of cases a day, but I don’t care. When parents fear for their children, I want you to be just as concerned as they are.

Anyway, I told him, just as politely, that I wanted them to find out who this man was, how he got my daughter’s phone number, how he knew her name, and what his intention was in sending her that SMS message.

“And,” I added, no longer so polite, “I want you to warn him not to come anywhere near my children!”

What I really wanted to say was, I want you to find this s.o.b. and take him out of the gene pool.

I’m a single father of two very engaging girls. I don’t have to be reasonable. I don’t care about due process and the right of the individual and people being innocent until found guilty. Not when it comes to my little girls.

Find this s.o.b., and even if he was just trying to be funny and had no designs on my daughter, take him out of the gene pool for being stupid enough to try something like this.

Believe me, you’d be doing the human race a favour.

Taken from here

Continuous Effort Pays...It Is Just A Matter of Time

NEW YORK: A man has confessed to strangling to death a boy who vanished on his way to school in 1979, apparently solving a crime that terrified parents across America and baffled police for three decades, New York police chief Ray Kelly said yesterday.

 

The man, Pedro Hernandez, “confessed to choking Etan 33 years ago tomorrow in a basement” of a Manhattan grocery store where he worked, Kelly told a news conference.

The confession was a stunning breakthrough in a cold case that had defied one of the country’s most sophisticated city police departments and ushered in the modern era of anxious parenting.

Kelly said Hernandez confessed for three hours and accompanied New York Police Department detectives to the scene of the crime, which was then a grocery store, or bodega, and which now sells eyeglasses.

He told investigators that he had lured Etan Patz, who was six and taking the school bus alone for the first time, “with the promise of a soda.”

“He then led him into the basement of the bodega, choked him there and disposed of the body by placing him in a plastic bag and placing it in the trash.”

According to Kelly, Hernandez is married with a teenage daughter, a US citizen with no criminal record and has not previously been a suspect in the high-profile investigation.

Police were led to him by a tip that followed a sudden reactivation of the search, with police and FBI agents digging up a different basement in Manhattan last month.

“The individual came forward because of the recent notoriety of the case,” Kelly said.

 

Although he escaped the authorities for more than three decades, Hernandez had apparently become guilt-ridden. He “told family and others that he had ‘done a bad thing and killed a child in New York,’” Kelly said.

Detectives who interviewed Hernandez thought “he was remorseful,” Kelly said. The confessed murderer appeared “to think it was a feeling of relief.”

Patz’s parents have been informed, Kelly said, adding he hoped the development would “bring some measure of peace.” However, he did not expect that the remains of the boy would ever be found. “It’s unlikely, very unlikely,” he said.

Patz’s disappearance was so shocking that he became a symbol for growing fears over the safety of children playing outside the home.

He became the first missing child to have his face pictured on milk cartons with an appeal for information. The date of his disappearance, May 25, became known as National Missing Children’s Day.

Taken from here

The First 26 Minutes is Critical when Child goes Missing

KUALA LUMPUR - The period of the first 26 minutes is a very critical time in the case missing child, said Pertubuhan Keselamatan Anak-anak Malaysia (PaMa).
Its Chairman, Mohd. Fairuz Mohamed Isa claimed that, within 26 minutes of the incident, the child may no longer be within reach and could have been taken away from the place of incident.
"So parents need to act fast in 26 minutes in case of missing child," he said through a press release today.
Mohd. Fairuz said the case of missing children is not unique only to Malaysia but all over the world, including in countries like the United States (U.S.).
According to him, the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) reported that more than a million children lost in 2005.
However, only 100 cases were reported missing due to kidnapping and in most cases in the U.S., the perpetrator plan for days, weeks or sometimes up to several months before striking. A child is reported missing in the U.S. every 26 seconds and it's a worrying situation, he said.
Hence, he said, PaMa urged parents in Malaysia to take some precautionary steps in preparation for any eventuality.
First and foremost is to save and update personal records of children every six months, including a record deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to store fingerprints or hair, and identify signs of child body like moles, scars or birthmarks.
The second step is to be sensitive to what is worn by the child at all times, especially at the crowded places like supermarkets, expo or market and identify accessories attached to clothing, watches and the like.
Parents are also urged to put identification tags such as security bracelet that has a phone number for the public to track their child if the child is lost in public places.
In addition, he said, PaMa also suggest improvement of the NUR Alert (National Urgent Response Alert) system because there is still no proper action taken to immediately detect and find the missing child nationwide as soon as the case is reported.
He said the Education Ministry was urged to streamline programs 3K (Safety, Health and Fun/Keselamatan, Kesihatan dan Keceriaan) and Crime Prevention Clubs school to educate students about the importance of their personal safety.

Translated from here 

26 Minit yang Pertama Adalah Amat Kritikal Apabila Kanak-kanak Hilang

KUALA LUMPUR – Tempoh 26 minit yang pertama adalah masa yang amat kritikal dalam satu-satu kes kehilangan kanak-kanak, kata Pertubuhan Keselamatan Anak-Anak Malaysia (PaMa).

Pengerusinya, Mohd. Fairuz Mohamed Isa mendakwa, dalam tempoh 26 minit tersebut kanak-kanak terlibat mungkin akan hilang didalam jangkauan setempat dan berada jauh dari lokasi awal kehilangannya.

“Justeru ibu bapa perlu bertindak pantas dalam masa 26 minit tersebut dalam kes kehilangan anak,” katanya melalui satu kenyataan media hari ini.

Mohd. Fairuz berkata, kes kehilangan kanak-kanak tidak hanya menjadi igauan di Malaysia malah di seluruh dunia termasuk di negara mahu seperti Amerika Syarikat (AS).

Menurutnya, National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) melaporkan lebih satu juta kanak-kanak hilang pada tahun 2005.

Namun, hanya 100 kes dilaporkan hilang disebabkan penculikan dan dalam kebanyakan kes itu di AS, pemangsa pencabulan kanak-kanak merancang penculikan beberapa hari, minggu atau kadangkala sehingga beberapa bulan lamanya sebelum melarikan kanak-kanak tersebut.

Malah dilaporkan seorang kanak-kanak hilang di AS pada setiap 26 saat dan keadaan itu cukup menggerunkan, katanya lagi.

Justeru, katanya, pihaknya menyarankan beberapa langkah untuk diambil oleh ibu bapa di Malaysia sebagai persediaan menghadapi sebarang kemungkinan.

Langkah itu adalah dengan menyimpan dan mengemas kini rekod peribadi kanak-kanak setiap enam bulan termasuk rekod asid deoksiribonukleik (DNA) dengan menyimpan cap jari atau rambut serta mengenal pasti tanda di badan anak seperti tahi lalat, parut atau tanda lahir.

Langkah kedua adalah dengan peka pada apa yang dipakai oleh kanak-kanak pada setiap masa terutama sewaktu ke tempat yang sesak seperti pasar raya, ekspo atau pasar dan mengenal pasti aksesori yang terlekat pada baju, jam tangan dan sebagainya.

Ibu bapa juga disaran memakaikan tanda pengenalan seperti gelang keselamatan yang mempunyai nombor telefon bagi memudahkan orang ramai mengesan anak mereka sekiranya kanak-kanak itu hilang di tempat awam.

Selain itu, katanya, PaMa juga menyarankan penambahbaikan sistem NUR Alert (National Urgent Response Alert) kerana masih belum ada tindakan yang wajar dilakukan bagi mengesan dan mencari kanak-kanak yang hilang dilakukan serta-merta di seluruh negara sebaik sahaja laporan diterima dan bagi membolehkan maklumat kehilangan kanak-kanak tersebut dihebahkan ke seluruh negara melalui pelbagai medium.

Menurutnya, Kementerian Pelajaran pula disaran memperkemaskan program 3K (Keselamatan, Kesihatan dan Keceriaan) dan Kelab Pencegahan Jenayah sekolah bagi mendidik para pelajar mengenai kepentingan menjaga keselamatan diri.

Taken from here