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Topic: Government US

FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

Summary: With its new Child ID app, the FBI aims to help people find their missing kids. Let's just hope it never has to be used.

Ricardo Bilton

By for The ToyBox |

Child ID, the first app from the FBI, is a bit late to the party. Using the app, parents can store key information about their children, including height, weight, and even photographs- that can be shown to authorities in the event that their kids go missing. The app also offers advice on what to do in the moments just after kids go missing. That can be vital information in many situations.

And in the event that you are (rightfully) concerned at the prospect of the FBI storing all the information you enter about your kids - don't be. The agency says that it does not collect and photos or information stored on the app - that is, until you send the information to authorities. Likewise, looking at the reviews of those who have used the app so far, it is clear that another major hold up for the program is that it lacks a fairly basic and sensical feature: password protection. So if you are uncomfortable with storing your kid's info in an unsectured app, It might be a good idea to hold off on downloading Child ID until the FBI implements the feature.

Sadly for Android parents, the app is currently only available for the iPhone. The FBI says its aiming to bring the app to other devices within the next few weeks and months.

In any case, the app is clearly one one hopes never to use. But is never bad to be prepared.

[iTunes Store]

Topics: Government US, Government

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21 comments
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  • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

    About damm time. :|

    Need a 911 for police and fire that can tap into the gps local for emergencies. Save precious seconds in he event of an emergency.
    rhonin
    Reply Vote

    • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

      @rhonin
      The app you want is: http://myforce.com/ - I saw this when it was Forsse - no affiliation.
      nigebj
      Reply Vote

  • What don't they simply embed an RFID chip in the right hand or forehead ...

    ... of each baby when they are born? This way, they can track the child ... FOR LIFE! And HEY! While they chip is in there, let's make it so that all business/monetary transactions can be conducted via that chip, so we can do away with CASH, CARDS, and any other form of ID! This way, the folks behind this globalization scheme that hide behind "inarguable causes" like "for the children's safety" and "for Mother Earth" can realize the absolute control over every single person on the planet and control what we can buy and sell, if we can eat and when -- just like the Anti-Christ One World Government foretold in the Book of Revelation.

    Naw, that's crazy, religious wingnut dribble.
    lalogos
    Reply Vote

    • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

      @lalogos
      Yep. Just like how people have looked for the Ark. Just like how the calender originated from "the year of our Lord". Just like all the efforts to disprove Scripture and reinforcing it all the while.
      Talk about a dribbling wingnut. Great term for a closed mind.
      Oh, and the app is a good idea. Records and pictures are needed as quickly as possible when there is a runaway or a child is missing. Stress and fear slow things way down and the faster the response, the better the chance of recovering the child. Strictly from a law enforcement point of view, of course.
      becomann
      Reply Vote

  • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

    Too bad my kid is a child of the Android revolution...looks like only ichildren will be saved
    rure@...
    Reply Vote

    • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

      @rure@... Only for a few more weeks or months...
      athynz
      Reply Vote

    • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

      @rure@... It's obvious you didn't read the whole article, as it was mentioned that the FBI is trying to bring the app to other devices within the next few weeks and months.
      T-Wrench
      Reply Vote

  • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

    For the folks upset that there isn't a 'droid version yet- you can always store a .pdf (or even a draft email) w/ your kids current pic, height, weight, school, etc. all ready to go. Certainly in the case of a child abduction, the FBI can supply you with a email addy that you can whisk that off to within seconds.
    The extra paranoid (had they had this tech when my kid was young, that would include me), could take a snapshot with the camera every morning, which would show the exact clothing that the child was wearing when last he/she left the house.
    Be your own best advocate! There need not "be an app for that".
    deusXmchna@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

    that is one of the best application but i want to ask a question how to get back child for this id it should be helped in missing children. i am write my <a href="http://www.essayhelppros.co.uk/university-essays.php">university essays</a> on the same issue "missing children"
    daniswalker
    Reply Vote

    • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

      @daniswalker I am wondering if your university considers grammar.
      brigadoon
      Reply Vote

      • Well, even the heading is shocking word usage - an

        @brigadoon app, in itself, cannot 'find' anything. We are mistaking the way Google 'finds' things, with the hard truth fact that to find a child, one must actually search the streets!
        Mahegan
        Reply Vote

  • Child Protection the new stalking horse

    for extending the "Patriot Act".

    "Of course, we'd never use the data so stored" - yeah, right. The child is paramount, so we will use "child protection" to take away all civilian rights - and who would argue with "child protection"?
    Yep - 10 years ago, it was 9-11. Now that people are sceptical, it is 'child-protection'.
    Mahegan
    Reply Vote

  • How on earth

    can an 'app' 'find' a child? Are we seriously to imagine that 'apps' will be walking the streets finding children?
    Maybe, coupled with military robots, machines will walk the streets finding children - or can we imagine something more Orwellian?
    Mahegan
    Reply Vote

  • FBI app to identify, not 'find' missing kids

    anything that helps is a good idea, this might be useful in cases of very young children who get accidentally lost or separated from their parents; however many of these cases are of abductions, or in the case of teens, they disappear without trace willfully and make sure they cannot be found -- in those cases the only solution is to search the streets yourself.

    Location Based Services can be used to track mobile phones anywhere on a network whenever the phone is on; this kind of tool is easily the best available solution in any kind of emergency, either individual or widespread disaster (albeit with its own privacy concerns). without such a feature, this app is bordering on useless.

    FYI: if you have concerns about the FBI having access to your data/photos -- if you have any social networking accounts, they have it already, with a much more extensive database about you / your family / colleagues / associates than you could ever know. some authorities also have technology to scan the contents of your phone remotely.
    krzyst0ff
    Reply Vote

  • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

    check this one....
    http://www.ichildalert.com/
    Most of the features are similar
    kaditya82
    Reply Vote

  • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

    If it helps in saving one child, I'm all for it. If your a good citizen and your not into doing naughty things then where really is the problem with this app tech. Do you really believe that the FBI or the CIA don't know who you are and were you are logged-on. It is all ready 1984 so forget about the (MAN) and get on with your daily life. I'm watching you! lol.
    walkedtallstoopedover
    Reply Vote

  • Are you people serious?

    People store all sorts of personal information on an unprotected phone, your worried about adding your kids weight and photos, I bet it?s there already. The app stores the data, it does not put it into a database. The faster you can get a missing child?s info to authorities the better off a missing child will be, this app allows you to have all the info in one place ready to go. If you are worried about security consider putting a password on the phone, you should be doing that anyway, especially with an iPhone.
    pllamonica@...
    Reply Vote

  • great

    Another government database that is insecure.
    abe@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

    We can expect that any new born child is chipped soon. Next step, all government employees will be equipped with scanners like those are used on dogs and horses..... Today it are children, after all it is a sympathetic idea that we might prevent them from coming into harms way. Next step a big database for the rest of us.
    rhon@...
    Reply Vote

    • RE: FBI launches Child ID app to help identify and find missing kids

      @rhon@...
      They've already got the big database for the rest of us. It's called "Facebook". Largest trove of personal data ever, and the world just walked into it willingly.
      -not that they didn't have info before, with carnivore and what came after it, and the NSA's hard tap into the ATT backbone, and wiretaps that aren't admissible in courts, but certainly yield information.. etc. etc. I live in a very liberal city, though it's within a very red state. Maybe it's being in the sea of "red" that makes us fight so hard for our privacy. Just recently citizens started noticing video camera's semi-concealed on street lamps and other high perches. Then it was a big thing on the local news, and then the cops copped to.. err.. explained it. They've already arrested a guy selling dime bags of marijuana!! We've been saved by the scourge of bags full of a couple grams of mexican ditchweed! Thank Got for Big Brother!... and I mean that sincerely ;)
      I'm glad I'm old and lead a mundane life. All this cop-tech would have cramped my style as a young bloke. Now it just irritates me and makes me go off on OldMan tangents.
      deusXmchna@...
      Reply Vote
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