Why should we fingerprint our children?

• 450,000 children run away each year
  
• 300,000 children are abducted each year by family members
  
• More than 58,000 children are abducted every year by non-family members
  

That's more than 800,000 children in America missing each year - one child every 40 seconds. Yet, when the National Child Identification Program began; less than two percent of parents had a copy of their child's fingerprints to use in case of an emergency.

The National Child Identification Program is a community service initiative dedicated to changing these statistics by providing parents and guardians with a tool they can use to help protect their children. The I.D. Kit allows parents to collect specific information by easily recording the physical characteristics and fingerprints of their children on identification cards that are then kept at home by the parent or guardian. If ever needed, this I.D. Kit will give authorities vital information to assist their efforts to locate a missing child.

In 1997, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) created the National Child Identification Program with the goal of fingerprinting 20 million children. In the program's first two years, nearly seven million I.D. Kits were distributed through stadiums, churches and community events. Now, five years later, more than 16 million I.D. Kits have been distributed, making the National Child Identification Program the LARGEST child identification effort ever conducted. The goal of the program now is to reach all 60 million children in the United States.

In December 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) joined in partnership with the AFCA to help increase parents awareness regarding the need to improve child safety. Agents have participated with the AFCA in numerous national, regional and local efforts to explain the problem of missing children and the importance of having a completed Child I.D Kit to provide to law enforcement in the time of need. The FBI has encouraged all 18,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S to participate in the National Child Identification Program.

To order I.D. Kits, please Click Here.
*Source: Department of Justice