Digital Child-Finding Platforms

Milk 2.0 is a campaign dedicated to finding missing children. The idea dates back to when children’s faces used to be printed on milk cartons to get the public active in the search. As the milk carton idea is no longer in effect, the Missing Children Association of Canada needed a better, more instantaneous way to reach the public: enter social media.

The Milk 2.0 project (also known as the World's Most Valuable Project) is an online search party that started with people donating their personal Facebook accounts to helping find missing children. This means that their status would update to the missing child report when a report was sent out. In addition, when people would use the 'Most Valuable Search Engine,' images and information on missing children would appear on the sidebars. As helpful as this was, the search party was just a toe dipped into the world of social media.

With the help of Pinterest, the police can now pin links to provide visual clues; for example, a child’s attire. Finally, as people can now “check in” to places and let their friends know where they are on Facebook, the police use “check in” to alert people within and surrounding areas where a child went missing to keep their eyes peeled. Some people may say social media and technology are taking over kids’ lives and checking them out of reality, but campaigns such as Milk 2.0 should restore people’s faith in our technological world.