National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Have ready

• if a child is missing: report to your local police first (911 if anyone is in immediate danger). NCMEC says to call it after the police have the report
• for that police call, as NCMEC lists it: the child's name, date of birth, height, weight, marks such as eyeglasses or braces, when you noticed they were missing, and what they were wearing
• for Take It Down: nothing to send. The picture or video stays on your own device

They may ask

• if a child is missing: a call center specialist records information about your child

They can

• answer 24 hours a day on 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
• if a child is missing: work with your family and the police on the case, make and share posters, pass tips from the hotline to the police, and put you in touch with trained volunteers whose own child went missing
• give crisis support and referrals to local counseling for a family with a missing or sexually exploited child
• take a sighting: find the child's poster and report it there, or call the same number
• point you to tools for removing sexual pictures and videos of a minor from the internet, including Take It Down, which is free and lets you stay anonymous

They cannot

• replace the police or 911: if anyone is in immediate danger call 911; for a missing child, call your local police first
• promise an AMBER Alert: its page says AMBER Alerts are activated in the most serious cases of child abduction
• remove images from every site: Take It Down works on public or unencrypted platforms that have agreed to take part
• help with images taken when you were 18 or older: for those the site points to stopncii.org
• take images from you: do not send, share or download an image to use Take It Down, which makes a digital fingerprint on your own device