250,000
250,000
cases of missing children are annually reported in the EU.
Most of them are young people that run away from home.
Up to 50%
Up to 50%
of unaccompanied refugee minors go missing at some point during their journey in the European Union.

What is ChildRescue about?

ChildRescue is an EU funded project that aspires to effectively reduce the primary period between the moment a child is reported missing and the one when it is found, and to help predict and prevent the disappearance of Children in Migration, by increasing accuracy and timeliness of publicly and privately available information, by performing evidence-based predictions on the whereabouts of children in distress, and by providing location-based audience targeting of mobile alerts.
ChildRescue will be instrumental in leveraging collective creativity, resourcefulness and action for a meaningful cause: to expedite more rapid and effective prevention and resolution of missing children cases, reducing the risks for the children and reuniting them with their families.

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Approach

Technologies that will be employed by ChildRescue during the investigation of missing children

Profiling

Information from psychological reports and physical characteristics is augmented by the on-line presence and behaviour of the missing child, which is explored using Sentiment and Social Network Analysis techniques. This leads to the construction of a multifaceted personal profile able to reveal potentially hidden moods, activities, influences and acquaintances.

Coordination

Through an analytics interface, the response organizations, the search and rescue teams, and caretakers track progress of the investigation and gain insights on the current status and next steps. In addition, they share data in a privacy-aware environment and exchange ideas through a transparent, uninterrupted public information flow.

Action

In the core of ChildRescue lies the Collective Intelligence concept. Citizens and volunteers will be acting as "investigation social sensors" through real-time geofencing technologies that alert and update only those individuals located in the geographic area proximate to a point of interest (e.g. location that the missing child was last seen). A crowd-validation methodology will be introduced to evaluate the consistency of reported information.

Archiving

ChildRescue supports the responsible authorities and organizations to handle the case's closure in a secure and privacy-respectful manner. Semantic annotation of the documentation and lessons learnt of the case is provided internally in order to support its retrieval in case of similar cases in the future.

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Blog & Events

Keep in touch with ChildRescue progress
childrescue @innovathens
November 30, 2020

Virtual Event “ChildRescue App: Cutting-edge technology for children’s protection” – Press Release

INVITATION to the online conversation-presentation “ChildRescue App: Cutting-edge technology for children’s protection”  On Monday, November 30, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. […]

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photo by rami al zayat on unsplash
November 27, 2020

Implementing ChildRescue app notification geofencing mechanism: Reviewing Android and iOS approaches

ChildRescue puts citizens at the center of the search and rescue process.  The mobile app enables the public to act […]

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October 20, 2020

ChildRescue White Paper – Press Release

Missing unaccompanied migrant minors in the EU and the need for a homogenous legal framework What the ChildRescue research reveals […]

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October 20, 2020

Missing unaccompanied migrant minors – lack of data and heterogeneous practices cause deep concerns

Over 30.000 unaccompanied migrant minors were officially registered in the EU in 2017 alone, with many more migrating irregularly and […]

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photo by annie spratt in unsplash
September 23, 2020

Key factors for improving missing children investigations through novel technologies

Each year over 250.000 cases of missing children are reported in Europe. Key factors for the investigation of missing children […]

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covid19 refugee children
August 12, 2020

People on the move: Fleeing home and facing lockdown Migrants and refugee children in the age of Covid-19

By Leda-Panagiota Alepi, MADE In the face of crisis, we are all vulnerable. We all experience fear and anxiety; we […]

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