Survey: Parents Not Prepared for Child Abduction

May 23 -- Parents, brush up on your children's vital statistics — it could determine whether or not you see them again if they're ever kidnapped.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and ADVO Inc. released a survey today that found not enough parents know the height, weight and eye color of all their children — three key pieces of information needed by investigators in missing children cases.

The survey, released to mark the 16th anniversary of National Missing Children's Day, found that 34 percent of parents could not recall these vital statistics for all their children.

While the numbers show most parents — 66 percent — do know these statistics, those who helped conduct the survey say those numbers need to improve. The FBI counts 2,100 new missing-children reports every day, which are solved more easily when parents can provide this descriptive information.

"This is a both reminder and a call for awareness for parents," said an investigator who helped conduct the survey. "It's shocking how many parents admit they don't know their children's height, weight and eye color or have a recent picture of their kids. That's something most parents don't even like to admit. The survey is meant to encourage parents to know their children's statistics. So many parents don't even know what to do or how to prepare for their child's disappearance."

Vital Statistics, Vital First Hours

The online survey of 1,000 parents, which was conducted from May 5-8, found that 56 percent of the parents with two or more children said they had all the information for all of their children; 81 percent of households with just one child had all the statistics. Three out of 10 parents admitted they did not know their children's height within 1 inch while two out of 10 did not know their child's weight within 5 pounds. Most parents — 98 percent — knew their child's eye color.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and ADVO, which runs a missing children program called America's Looking for Its Missing Children, say that many missing children — one out of seven — have been found through the use of pictures, either through distribution by the United States Postal Service or through missing child direct mail cards.