In the early 90’s when Nipperbout first began to run Lost Child Points at festivals and events there was a widely held belief that child predators could be listening behind every bush for radio communications about children and that an overheard description would put the child in danger.
For this reason it was deemed imperative that all lost children should be referred to as ‘Disneys’ and all adults seeking those children as ‘Walts’.
From 1992 until fairly recently this bizarre practise continued, with various mutations, depending on the organisation's imagination. Some even went so far as to ban the use of radio’s when communication was about children,to ‘hide’ Lost Child Points so as not to concern their audience and to insist that only face-to-face communication should be used.
The chaos, delay and distress this caused was ridiculous as security staff and lost child personnel ran between control point with details and information.
The simple fact is that the sooner that many ‘eyes are on’ in a situation involving a lost child the better. The fastest way to find a lost child is to lots of people. Whilst I’m not advocating informing the event at large, swift and clear dissemination of information is crucial.
Security personnel need to know immediately if a child is missing, they need the age of the child and a factual visual description so that they can begin the search. EG ‘Child missing, aged 2 years, mixed race, with long dark hair, in a batman T shirt’.
The use of IC codes (depicting skin colour and race) is important in swift communication and should be used provided that
Nipperbout have run the Lost Child Points at the Queen’s Jubilees in 2012 and 2022 and across the London Olympics. At all events we work closely with the police. We know they don’t use codes for describing Lost Children. In fact, many forces turn to social media using images of missing children and full descriptions and in America there is an app that the public can download on which descriptions are issued whenever the police need help. Doing so means everyone is on the lookout, reporting via the communication lines given on socials or via the app if they have any potential sightings. In both cases, communication happens swiftly and widely.
The main reasons using codes is unnecessary are because the following two parts of the Lost Child Process are far more important.
o The thorough search of pre-assessed high-risk areas such as car parks, building works and ponds/open water.
o Communication with stakeholders eg: rides, VIP/back stage areas, sweet or toy shops.
o The shutting down of event entrances where possible.
o Adhering to realistic, age-appropriate waiting times before the police are involved.
o Clearly designated Lost Child Points.
I have been, and still find myself, at events where “Walts’ and “Disneys” are furtively whispered over the radio and Lost Child Points are hidden ‘securely’. When the missing child is found they are then simply handed over with a smile and a nod on the premise that “if the child seems happy to go and is calling the adult Mum or Dad – so what’s the problem?”
If you want to know more about a proper, secure and robust reuniting process, the laws that are there to help you, appropriate waiting times and how to find out about the local crimes against children in your event area, Nipperbout have a CPD accredited Lost Child Training course which explains all of this and more in detail specifically for the event world.
