COPS: RUNAWAY TEENS WANT FREEDOM
Those found refuse to return home because they like their newfound lives
WANTING freedom is a factor driving children and teenagers to run away from home, said the police.
Sexual, Women and Children’s Investigation Division (D11) principal assistant director Assistant Commissioner Choo Lily said of the 1,302 cases of missing children aged between 12 and 15 last year, 662 of them ran away from home because they wanted freedom from their families or guardians.
“Another cause of teenage runaways is peer pressure, involving 184 cases, and family problems, involving 170 cases.
“There are cases of teenagers running away with their lovers or their mother or father, in the case of divorced parents.
“Some even ran away from home because they had no interest in studying and wanted to work,” she said.
She added that there were also cases of children running away from shelter homes.
These missing teenagers, when found by the police, often refused to return to their families because they were comfortable with their their newfound lives.
Choo said of the 1,302 cases of missing children reported, 1,186 of them had been found.
She said Johor had the highest number of missing children cases last year, involving 193 people, followed by Selangor (189), Sabah (182) and Sarawak (115).
On the National Urgent Response Alert or Nur Alert launched in 2007, she said the system was effective and helped the police in tracking down victims quickly.
“Through the Nur Alert, we can trace the victims fast with information provided by the public.”
She said parents or guardians should contact the police immediately upon realising their children missing and that they did not have to wait for 24 hours to do so, as in the case of a missing adult.