[How many children are reported missing each year?]

The U.S. Department of Justice reports
797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.
203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.
58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.
115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)

[How many children are victims of online sexual exploitation?]

According to the latest online victimization research,
Approximately one in seven youth online (10 to 17-years-old) received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet.
Four percent (4%) received an aggressive sexual solicitation - a solicitor who asked to meet them somewhere; called them on the telephone; or sent them offline mail, money, or gifts.
Thirty-four percent (34%) had an unwanted exposure to sexual material -- pictures of naked people or people having sex.
Twenty-seven percent (27%) of the youth who encountered unwanted sexual material told a parent or guardian.


[Missing children]
Missing children include divergent types of disappearances, including parental abductions, runaways, the disappearance of unaccompanied migrant minors, criminal abductions and lost, injured or otherwise missing children.
o In the UK ( population: 61 MIO) it is estimated that 140 000 cases of missing children are reported annually ( 383/day) ( this covers all reports, not only the cases treated by MCE member Missing People (see below);
o In Belgium (population 10,5 MIO): MCE member Child Focus opens an average of 8 new cases a day ;
o USA: of 621 child abductions which ended in murder, 44 % of the children were killed within the first hours, 74 % were killed within 3 hours and 91% within 24 hours after the disappearance.

[Sexually exploited children]
The sexual exploitation and abuse of children are considered to comprise at least following categories: sexual abuse or assault, child prostitution, child pornography, child trafficking for sexual purposes and grooming (solicitation of children).
o 39% of child abuse images, the possession of which led to arrests in the US in 2000 & 2001, concerned children between ages 3-5, 19% concerned children below 3 (source:NCMEC);
o In 2003, the National Criminal Intelligence Service in the United Kingdom estimated that child-pornography web sites had doubled worldwide;
o In 2007, there was a 16.4% rise in child abuse images reports processed by the Internet Watch Foundation hotline in the UK compared to the same period in 2006;
o While victims are increasingly younger, the abuse is proving to become increasingly more violent.


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Some people spend their time worrying about how they can't go on without this or that...

Their is nothing that one person can truly do to tame the darkness of this world, But it would be good if people had a little perspective from time to time.
The small pains mean nothing when all our bitching really does is obscure the small death's our societies face each day.

To truly care can destroy someone, but it can also give great strength.
If we truly care, then we will temper darkness with love, not hate and pain.