NOV 11 — The discovery of baby Freddie at Titiwangsa Lake on Saturday was the best news of the day for many.

The search for the missing boy began the moment news of his abduction started making its rounds on websites and social media.

We tweeted and updated our Facebook walls by posting pictures of the boy. We communicated through WhatsApp, conveying the news to our parents and neighbours throughout Friday night and Saturday.

News of Freddie being dragged out of his home brought back memories of Nayati Shamelin Moodliar, the 12-year-old Dutch boy who was kidnapped on his way to school in Mont Kiara last year.

Both Freddie and Nayati’s cases have depicted how the masses are playing their part in helping spread news of missing children.

We have come a long way since the 2007 abduction and brutal murder of eight-year-old Nurin Jazlin Jazimin — who was found stuffed in a bag — close to a month after she had gone missing.

Veteran journalist Nuraina Samad had previously blogged about the initial apathy of the police when Nurin’s father Jazimin Abdul Jalil, after lodging a report, approached newspapers and television stations to publicise his daughter’s disappearance.

In Nurin’s case, the only thing circulating on the Internet were autopsy pictures of the young girl taken during police investigation. Her murderers are still roaming free and police have not closed her file.

However, many other children have gone missing since. On January 9, 2008 five-year-old Sharlinie Mohd Nashar was abducted while playing at a playground near her home in Taman Medan, Petaling Jaya. Witnesses said the girl was spotted being dragged into a black car by a woman.

In March that year, 11-year-old Asmawi Jalaludin went missing after playing with his friends at the Kampung Kerinchi flats, some 200 metres away from home.

On June 4, 2010, two-year-old Nisha Chandramohan went missing after her mentally-ill aunt took her for a walk in Taman Bukit Bendera, Mentakab. There has been no news of Nisha’s whereabouts since.

Two-year-old Lee Xin Ru was taken by an unidentified woman from her home in Kampung Sempalit, Raub, on September 21, 2010.

Last year, the charred remains of five-year-old Nurul Nadirah Abdullah was found after she was reported missing on March 1 when going to buy instant noodles and eggs at a nearby grocery shop in Nusa Damai, Johor Baru.

Earlier this year, the remains of six-year-old William Yau was found floating in Port Klang on January 24 after he was reported missing on January 16.

According to police statistics, 3,223 children below the age of 18 were reported missing from 2008 to April 2011. Out of this number, 1,708 had been solved.

In 2011, the NUR Alert early notification system was launched, dedicated for missing children aged 12 and below but the mechanism is not used for kidnapping cases. The system has only been used six times since it was launched.

However, the NUR Alert has come under criticism by various quarters, including NGO’s and politicians, claiming it is under-used.

Suhakam commissioner and veteran child rights advocate James Nayagam was quoted in a report last year as saying the system has not achieved much.

He questioned the need to wait for 24 hours before alerting parties about a missing child and he also said it should also not be confined to those below the age of 12.

“You used it in only five of 69 missing cases of children. And of the five cases, only two were successfully found. One is dead and two (reported missing in 2010) are still missing, yet there are no ongoing alerts about them,” he said.

Nayagam is right. There has been no ongoing alerts on the missing children.

Why isn’t the alert being used to locate Sharlinie or Asmawi? And why bother introducing something if it is not going to be utilised?

We do not want to hear about another child reported missing only to find him or her dead days later.

We have the mechanisms and resources in place. Let’s use them fully.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.