New website aims to enlist Canadians to help find missing kids

A new website launched Tuesday aims to alert people to the thousands of children who are reported missing each year in Canada.

The Missing Children’s Society of Canada’s new website called Rescu will allow residents to view all active cases by geographic region, based on information provided by police.

Users who might have useful information can provide tips by clicking on the name or picture of the child. The new web application also features an option to receive text alerts on cellphones to cases in a specific area.

Statistics Canada says more than 42,000 children were reported missing in Canada last year. In most cases, the child was found safe – but police activated fewer than 10 Amber Alerts due to the high threshold of urgency required to do so.

The goal is to reach far more people than the current Amber Alert system does.