FBI launches phone app to help find missing children

August 5, 2011

The FBI joined the booming mobile phone app market with the launch of a tool to help parents find missing kids

A customer looks at the Apple iPhone 4. The FBI joined the booming mobile phone app market with the launch of a tool to help parents find missing kids.

The FBI joined the booming mobile phone app market on Friday with the launch of a tool to help parents find missing kids.

"You're shopping at the mall with your children when one of them suddenly disappears. A quick search of the nearby area is unsuccessful. What do you do?" the promotional blurb for the application says.

The answer? If you have the free FBI app -- which is only available for iPhones at the moment -- and stored photos and vital information about your children on it, the data you need to be reunited with your missing child would be "literally right at hand."

Parents using the app "can show the pictures and provide physical identifiers such as height and weight to security or on the spot" or email the key information to the authorities using a special tab on the app in the event their child goes missing.

According to the , a child goes missing in the United States every 40 seconds, and "many never return home."

The FBI has plans to expand the app for use on other , and to add more features.

(c) 2011 AFP

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NANOBRAIN
Aug 05, 2011

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This is just the beginning.
Ricochet
Aug 06, 2011

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Now, what would be REALLY neat is if you could upload a good facial photo through the FBI app and computers would monitor all the security cameras in the mall for a face matching the photo, then show their location on a map.
Jadxia
Aug 15, 2011

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Ricochet: If people could monitor all the security cams for a specific face they uploaded, it would just turn into a great app for stalkers.
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