Push to find missing kids

The initiative China's police launched on Tuesday to step up the search for missing children till June 1 is a move in the right direction. Police at local county and city levels will issue the alert when missing children are reported.

Within six months police will conduct DNA tests on children with obscure origins and match results with the DNA database to make sure they were not abducted.

Many children and young people, or their parents, are enticed by promises of a better life, or one that will enable them to support their families. Some children are kidnapped; others are sold or hired out to adult controllers who use them in different ways; some are sold for adoption; but most are forced to beg or work on the street - selling flowers, singing, shining shoes, etc. In extreme cases some children are deliberately maimed so that their begging brings in more money and some of course disappear into the sex trade.