Mission:
To assist in the location and recovery of missing children and to prevent the abduction, molestation, sexual exploitation, and victimization of children.

Background:
Established in 1984, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children operates under a congressional mandate in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The organization works to keep children safe by coordinating the efforts of law enforcement personnel, social service agency staff, elected officials, judges, prosecutors, educators, and individuals.

Outstanding Feature:
The search feature on the NCMEC Web site is one of the most important tools on the Internet. Web users can go to the site to search a database of missing children by a range of criteria, including their names, how long they have been missing, where they were seen last, and physical descriptions. In addition, site visitors can report a sighting of a missing child or leads on cases of sexual exploitation of children. On the home page, a link to success stories features accounts of children who were returned to their parents with the help of the NCMEC Web site.