“The Smile of the Child” participates in the global effort to develop innovative technology for the benefit of missing children

“The Smile of the Child”, member of the Global Missing Children’s Network (GMCN), represented Greece at the 10th GMCN Annual Conference held on the 28 and 29 of November 2018 in Cordoba, Spain with the participation of representatives of law enforcement, the judiciary, civil society and children’s rights networks from 22 countries across the world.

More specifically, the President of the BoD of “The Smile of the Child” and member of the BoD of the Washington, D.C.-based International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), Mr. Costas Yannopoulos, had the opportunity to briefly present the Greek experience in the field of prevention and tackling of the issue of missing children based on the use of mechanisms, such as Amber Alert Hellas, as well as other innovative tools.  

Participants from Albania, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, UK and the USA analyzed the phenomenon of disappearance and abduction of children and the way technologies can be used in order to deal with missing children cases that require cross-border cooperation, the timely exchange of information and the immediate mobilization of the competent authorities.

In addition, participants presented innovative platforms of timely and immediate notification that utilize, among others, technological possibilities offered by social media channels.

Emphasis was placed on the GMCNgine, a centralized platform that uses Artificial Intelligence and facial recognition technology to scour the general and dark webs for photos of children, to compare against images from ongoing cases of missing children from across the globe, providing law enforcement and NGOs with leads on the possible whereabouts of missing children and facilitating the process of bringing possible abductors to justice.

The GMCNgine is the initiative of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) and is expected to be launched in the beginning of 2019.

During the conference participants formed working groups and discussed on ways to improve the GMCNgine and expand its use in the field of global awareness around the phenomenon.  

Full photo material can be found here. 

For more information on the work of the Global Missing Children’s Network (GMCN) visit www.globalmissingkids.org

For more information on the Press Release, please contact our press team at +30 210 33 06 140 ή στο press@hamogelo.gr

Every day children go missing across the world. The Global Missing Children’s Network (GMCN) is the initiative of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) and operates a global database that provides and exchanges information and photos of missing children. The Network provides technical training to countries and organizations, members of the Network, as well as tools and good practices in the field of missing children. “The Smile of the Child” is a member of the Global Network from Greece.