Police work with online service to find lost kids
Nearly 3,000 children were reunited with their families with the help of an online service created to locate lost youngsters, the Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday.
The service, Tuanyuan, the Chinese word for reunion, publicizes information about missing children and was developed for the authorities by e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Since its launch in May 2016, 25 media sites and mobile apps including Amap, Tencent QQ and Baidu have connected with Tuanyuan, allowing people to receive alerts about missing children.
Chen Shiqu, deputy director of the ministry’s criminal investigation bureau, said that by May 15, the platform had shared information about 3,053 missing children, 48 of whom had been abducted.
Other reasons children may be missing include running away from home, becoming lost and having a fatal accident. Nearly 98 percent of the cases posted on Tuanyuan have been solved.
In addition to updating information about children who are missing or found, the service releases data about traffickers and identifies false information.
After police receive and verify a report about a missing child, the service posts information such as the child’s sex, height, weight, birth date and photos. The information, which is spread to people within 100 kilometers within one hour, can reach people as far as 500 km away in three hours through media and mobile apps, Chen said.
A typical case unfolded in April, when 7-year-old Wang Bowen, from Shanxi province, was found at Datong East Railway Station after people recognized him and alerted police.
The boy, a student at Dadi primary school in Huanren county, became lost after running away from school because he disliked studying and was feeling depressed.
After his family reported him missing, police immediately sent his information to the service, which then immediately disseminated the news via websites and apps.
An updated version of Tuanyuan that was launched on Thursday is connected to four other platforms: Xinhua News Agency’s app, CCTV’s audio and video app, online fooddelivery service Ele.me and the Dianwoda logistics company website.
“Now that those four have joined, Tuanyuan will expand its scope and channels for releasing information about abducted children, and more missing children might be found and reunited with their families,” Chen said.
Liu Zhenfen, a partner of Alibaba Group, said: “As a major technology company, we are devoted to the public welfare and feel honored to integrate our science and technology into public service, to help more missing children reunite with their families.”