The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Today I visited the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. This was one of the saddest places that I’ve visited for the entire semester. I think it’s sad because this is where parents have to go when their kids run away or just mysteriously end up missing. It was extremely sad when I learned that in some cases the kids either are found dead or somethings they aren’t found at all. It made me happy when Kevin O’Brien of the Exploited Child Devision said that sometimes they are able to track down the children and return them safely to their families. This made me feel like there is hope for some families who may have lost their children. He even mentioned an incident where a young woman who was stolen while she was months old found her biological parents when she was in her 30s. This shows that anything is possible.

The most interesting thing that I saw while I was at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was the fact that they could predict the age progression to see how these kids look as teenagers and maybe even as adults. They are able to take a picture of a missing toddler and predict how that child looks 10 years after that picture was originally taken. The people at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children can even use bone structure to determine the race and possibly even some of the facial features of a dead child.

What bothered me the most was watching an interview of a child molester. The man who was in his 50s or 60s was on video explaining to the interview just how much he loves young girls. He went ahead to say how gullible they are and that all he had to do was show them that he cared. I feel that this is a problem that parents and families cause because if they teach their children how to avoid these predators, fewer of these situations will occur.