Great article! Very informative but precise. A must read.

By: Pattie Fitzgerald, Founder of Safely Ever After, Inc. Summertime… and the livin' is easy… Isn't that how the song goes? Why then, does it seem like summertime is sometimes even more hectic than our school days: the vacations, camps, endless backyard bar-b-ques, swim parties, and outings! With all this running around, travel and daytrips how do we make sure our kids stay safe - especially when we aren't always around keeping a watchful eye?

InstantAmber is pleased to announce that it has teamed up with OneCause. OneCause funds consumers' chosen schools/causes by channeling their everyday purchases to well-known merchants and service providers, who in turn contribute a percentage of every purchase back to the schools/cause. When a OneCause member purchases InstantAmber through OneCause's site, 20% will be donated to the member's school/cause!

InstantAmber was proud to attend the 2009 Youth Expo in Costa Mesa, CA on April 18-19. InstantAmber attended the event with a non-profit partner, KinderVision, which is the nation's oldest and largest child safety education program.

Missing children isn't an epidemic solely focused on America, but extends globally. Many countries aren't fully equipped on the law enforcement front to properly aid in the search for missing children. China however has made a stride in the right direction and is now implementing a DNA database to help look for missing children. China has a real issue with child trafficking, children being stolen and sold on the black market.

3 yr old Briant Rodriguez was abducted from his home 48 hours ago at gunpoint. Abductors were thin, light-skinned Latinos. One is about 18 years old, 5 feet, 8 inches tall and was wearing blue jeans, a green T-shirt and a black baseball cap. Another about 24 years old, 5 feet, 10 inches tall and was wearing a black shirt, black pants, boots and a white bandanna. Briant is 3 feet tall, 40 pounds, with brown, curly hair. Last seen wearing a yellow shirt, blue sleeves, blue striped shorts/sandals.

There are several child safety products that seek to help authorities identify your child in the case of their abduction. From DNA kits to ID Cards and USB drives, many experts agree that in the case your child goes missing, these kits could be crucial to recovering your son or daughter.

While on holiday with her parents and twin siblings in southern Portugal, Madeleine McCann went missing from an apartment in the middle of the Praia da Luz resort. Initial investigations by the Policia Judiciaria concluded that the girl had been abducted. From that moment, Portuguese police began a nationwide manhunt. They carried out a search with sniffer dogs, examined photographs taken by vacationers, and searched the coast including area caves to see if any suspects could be identified. None were found. On June 17th, the Policia Judiciaria noted that the presence of so many people in the McCann's apartment may have destroyed all the evidence and could have proved fatal to the case.

After observing the success of the United States' Amber Alert system, Ireland has decided to develop their own instant alert system to help insure child safety. The system would be modeled on the Amber Alert system that has been used in the United States for the past decade. The system would involves police sending urgent bulletins to the public through the media and other agencies, seeking help in searching for a missing child.

You receive a direct message from someone that you follow on Twitter. It says something rather innocent and intriguing such as, "Check out this blog type website. you need to see it.." and, "Hey look at this funny blog." There may be other variants, but you get the idea. I have removed the links, but anything on the access-logins.com domain should be avoided. When you click the link you arrive at what looks like the main Twitter login page. Only it's not genuine, it's a cloned site. And if you use this cloned site to enter your login details, your username and password will be recorded and used to access your account.

KMBC's Peggy Breit reported that the case is drawing attention to flaws in the state's Amber Alert system. Some law enforcement agencies are issuing their own alerts that the state doesn't recognize, including the one issued by Independence police. Independence asked the Missouri Highway Patrol to ask for a statewide alert, but the patrol declined, because the case didn't meet the Amber Alert guidelines, the patrol said. The guidelines include that a child was abducted and is at risk for serious harm or death. As of a year ago, law enforcement departments can call their own Amber Alerts without approval from an Amber Alert board.

Ten year old McKenna Bishop, rushing from the living room where she had been watching the television, told her mother Carol Cornell about her formerclassmate. The boy had been in her fourth grade class for two weeks at the beginning of the school year at Barranca Elementary School and then abruptly exited. Her mother called the television show, it was the first solid tip police received since the beginning of the case.

Haleigh's mother (Crystal Sheffield) alleges that her father, Ronald Cummings, physically abused both children as a means of punishment. In a statement to the press, Haleigh's Grandmother denied the allegations saying, "This is not the first time they've pulled this out -- it's not the first time. I don't think it's going to turn out the way they want it to. They must want custody really bad,"

Great news! To read the back story, please click on this link http://tinyurl.com/ct9qoa

Justin Lee Wainwright and Joshua Zohr have returned home. The teens disappeared Sunday, March 15 from their suburban Detroit homes. Following their disappearance police issued amber alerts to help locate the missing youths. The disappearances didn't attract national attention until their parents set up a website to enlist the public's support of their cause.

Hopefully we can help these children in some way by raising awareness. Please help spread the word, thank you!

In India most of the children do not return. Lured away from their homes by the promise of jobs in the big city, these children are forced into exploitative situations by kidnappers masquerading as businessmen. Instead of having a better standard of living, receiving regular meals and being able to send money back to the family, many children end up in the sex trade or otherwise severely exploited.

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Very important tips and advice! It never hurts to be cautious and observant.

So, how can we protect our kids? By paying attention to the clues and cues of those adults who interact with them on a regular basis. Be mindful of any adult who seems "too good to be true" - often volunteering to "go the extra mile" with your child, suggesting lots of one-on-one or "alone" time with your child.

In some cases, missing children aren't always missing. That was exactly the case with Bruce Anderson who went missing near the turn of the century. In 1912, one of the biggest news stories in the country was the disappearance of four year old Bobby Dunbar.

Interesting historical information