The Ottawa Sun

Kid search hits Internet

By Laura Bobak

The RCMP are hitting the information highway in a bid to find some of Canada's 50,000 missing children.

The force launched a new service yesterday which makes photos and descriptions of missing kids and their suspected abductors available worldwide on the Internet.

The web page initially features photos of about 50 kids, but up to 1,000 pictures from the RCMP's Missing Children's Registry could be available in a year's time.

The service, called Child CyberSearch Canada, is sponsored by CS Co-op and MarketAecess Communications. "It's great. We can get access worldwide and we never had that before," said Sgt John Oliver of the Missing Children's Registry.

Of the 50,000 children missing in Canada, 500 were criminally abducted. The rest are mostly teenage runaways. Every Canadian police force has been notified of the Internet service and will be able to contribute photes of children missing from their areas. To view the site, set your web browser to http://www.childcybersearch.com.

If you don't have Internet access, the same information will be available as of Aug. 1 by dialling a local bulletin board service at (613)733-0230.