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BBM will soon become a tool to find missing children in Canada

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Canada may have a reputation for being nice, but it has its fair share of missing children. The Toronto Police Service and the Missing Children Society of Canada hope to make the public more aware about these kids by adding BlackBerry Messenger to their Milk Carton 2.0 program.

Milk Carton 2.0 hopes to thrust the mid-1980s U.S. missing children milk carton campaigns into the 21st century through the use of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, in order to spread the word about missing children. The collaboration with BlackBerry involves the creation of a BBM Channel, which is, at its core, a discussion group within BBM. The Channel, dubbed the Missing Children Society of Canada BBM Channel, alerts followers whenever there is information about a missing child.

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“I don’t think there is a greater responsibility that all of us have than the safety and protection of our children,” said Toronto Police Service chief Bill Blair. “It is a shared responsibility and the commitment that I think every Canadian makes to ensure that all of our children are safe.”

“We understand that in order to be able to bring that child home as quickly as possible, and ultimately to prevent missing children from occurring, we needed to connect our community,” said MCSC executive director Amanda Pick. “Technology has afforded this amazing opportunity.”

The early stages of an abduction are usually when the odds of finding a missing child is at its best, and if this collaboration can save even one child, it would not have been in vain. You can view a video of today’s event below.

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