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If you or someone else are in immediate danger, CALL 911 immediately.
24-Hour Hotline
Is your child missing?
1. Immediately call your local law enforcement agency.
2. After you have reported your child missing to law enforcement, call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).
3. If your child is missing from home, search through:
- Closets.
- Piles of laundry.
- In and under beds.
- Inside large appliances.
- Vehicles – including trunks.
- Anywhere else that a child may crawl or hide.
4. Notify the store manager or security office if your child cannot be found when in a store. Then immediately call your local law enforcement agency. Many stores have a Code Adam plan of action in place.
When you call law enforcement:
- Provide law enforcement with your child’s name, date of birth, height, weight and descriptions of any other unique identifiers such as eyeglasses and braces. Tell them when you noticed your child was missing and what clothing he or she was wearing.
- Request law enforcement authorities immediately enter your child’s name and identifying information into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center Missing Person File.
Find information, resources, and tools to help you remove sexual pictures and videos of a minor from the internet.
View and print missing children’s posters and report a sighting of a specific missing child.
If you believe you have seen a missing child, please search for their poster using our search tool, and click the “report a sighting” icon in the top right corner of the poster, or call us at 1-800-THE-LOST(1-800-843-5678).
For families with a missing or sexually exploited child, NCMEC provides crisis intervention and local counseling referrals to appropriate professionals. We also connect families with peers who have had similar experiences and can offer compassion.