National Child Safety Campaign Marks National Missing Children's Day

Children's Actions Result in Escape from 81 Percent of Attempted Abductions

Actor Tim Kang from CBS "The Mentalist" Urges Parents to Take 25 Minutes to Talk to Children about Safety

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This May, thousands of communities across the country will hold events as a part of the sixth annual Take 25 national child safety campaign.  The effort was created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to encourage families to take 25 minutes to talk to their children about safety and abduction prevention. A website for the campaign, www.Take25.org, lists 25 safety tips for parents that can help save a child's life.  The campaign begins May 1 and continues through National Missing Children's Day on May 25.  This year more than 10,000 events are scheduled in more than 700 communities in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada and the Bahamas.

NCMEC has partnered with actor Tim Kang of the hit CBS show The Mentalist to help educate parents about what they should be telling their children to keep them safe.

"As a new dad I know from personal experience how parents would do anything to protect their child from harm.  Parents need to talk to their children about ways to be safe.  They also need to take 25 minutes this month to talk to them about what to do if someone tries to abduct them.  It could save their life," said actor Tim Kang.  NCMEC has great resources to help parents have that discussion, including a Know the Rules series of safety tips parents should routinely review with their children."

Every year in America, an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing, more than 2,000 children each day. Of that number, 200,000 are abducted by family members and 58,000 are abducted by non-family members, for which the primary motive is sexual. Each year, 115 children are the victims of the most serious abductions; they are taken by non-family members and either murdered, ransomed or taken with the intent to keep. An analysis of attempted abduction cases by NCMEC found that in 81% of the cases, the child escaped would-be abductors through their own actions.  Twenty-eight percent actively resisted (yelling, kicking, pulling away, running away or attracting attention) while 53% recognized something was not right and responded by walking or running away. 

May 25 has been observed as National Missing Children's Day since it was first proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. The Take 25 campaign will help parents and others teach children to be alert to potential threats and provide simple preventative steps that children can take to stay safe.   

"We know teaching children about safety works. Children's actions enable them to escape attempted abductions more than 80% of the time. It is important that parents and others take the time to talk to their children about these issues," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. "The Take 25 campaign is designed to provide information to make it easy for parents, grandparents and others to teach their children about safety and prevention. There is no better way to mark National Missing Children's Day than with an initiative designed to empower children and help keep them safe."

The Take 25 campaign is proudly sponsored by Lifetouch, the largest employee-owned photography company in the world. Lifetouch provides professional portraits for preschools and schools, houses of worship and the retail market in all 50 states and Canada.  Other national partners of Take 25 include the United States Secret Service, Masonichip International, Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and several Minor League Baseball teams.  In addition, nearly 800 other local and national organizations have partnered with NCMEC on this campaign.

This year Take 25 events will be held in all 290 U.S. Embassies around the world during the month of May.  For a list of cities where events will be held, please contact [email protected].

About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 1984.  Designated by Congress to serve as the nation's clearinghouse, the organization has operated the toll-free 24-hour national missing children's hotline which has handled more than 3,472,740 calls.  It has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 169,840 children.  The organization's CyberTipline has handled more than 1,405,030 reports of child sexual exploitation and its Child Victim Identification Program has reviewed and analyzed more than 67,674,450 child pornography images and videos.  The organization works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.  To learn more about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com.

About Tim Kang
Tim Kang can currently be seen weekly on the hit CBS drama The Mentalist.  Now in its fourth season, the show is widely distributed by Warner Brothers internationally and is airing in syndication on TNT.  Before his starring role in The Mentalist, Tim was seen in the Lionsgate action thriller Rambo opposite Sylvester Stallone and had memorable performances in movies such as The Forgotten and Two Weeks Notice, as well as on television in recurring roles on CBS's military saga, The Unit, and NBC's popular drama, Third Watch. Tim re-teamed with popular Marvel Comics writer and film director Greg Pak for the title role in 2010's Mister Green, having first worked together in Greg's acclaimed first feature, Robot Stories. Last year Tim co-starred in an off-beat horror TV project for director Jamie Foxx, and this winter recently voiced author Adam Johnson's critically acclaimed The Orphan Master's Son for Random House Audio about the description of life in North Korea under "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il, where he narrated and also portrayed over 20 characters. In late 2011, Tim launched his production company One Shoot Films (OSF) with the focus of getting back to the basics of good storytelling, and to produce relevant, engaging and entertaining films that accurately reflect the world we live in today. OSF's first project scheduled to go into production this Spring 2012 is a dramatic short film that focuses on the topic of human trafficking, addressing real life crimes of abduction and abuse, and encouraging awareness to the issues of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.      

SOURCE National Center for Missing & Exploited Children