New app Milk Carton 2.0 gets the word out about missing children

Milk cartons used to raise awareness about missing or abducted children – but today, a new app is doing just that.

Toronto Police and the Missing Children Society of Canada announced Milk Carton 2.0. The society reached out to BlackBerry and other partners to use Twitter and other social media feeds to get information out about missing children immediately.

Both the society and police say the new app is a powerful tool that gets everyone on-board to prevent the unbearable suffering that comes when a child goes missing.

Executive director Amanda Pick: “The one thing we know is when a child goes missing, there is not one person in our community that does not want to play a part in re-connecting that child with their family.”

Toronto Police chief Bill Blair: “One of the things we have learned is that if we are going to keep our communities safe, in particular if we are going to keep our children safe, we need all Canadians to get engaged and for Canadians to get to be involved – and in order for them to be involved they need to be informed.”

The app allows police and families to post pictures and other information about missing children, like what clothes they were wearing or their abductor’s vehicle. Last year over 41,000 children were reported missing in Canada, in incidents ranging from kids running away to abduction.