Outwardly, 17-year-old Lai Yi-ting (
She did not spend much time online, nor had she ever come home later than 7pm.
Lai is now listed as a missing person by the National Police Agency (NPA). At a press conference yesterday, her parents said that she left home on April 28 and had not been seen since.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
They said they had not detected any changes in their daughter's behavior prior to her disappearance and were worried she might have fallen under the control of a crime ring.
"Come home, Yi-ting," her father said. "I will help you with whatever problems you have."
Children's rights advocates said the number of similar cases has increased drastically in recent years, where children or teenagers leave home voluntarily without informing their parents of their whereabouts.
NPA statistics showed that as many as 9,500 children and teenagers had been reported as having run away from home last year alone. On average, this meant one child leaving home every hour.
Runaways account for 80 percent of cases listed in the Missing Children Data Resource Center (
Since 2000, the center has received more than 400 requests to help find missing children.
Among these missing minors, about 100 of them left home to meet someone they had met on the Internet.
The center also said that more than half of those leaving home were junior high students.
Asked for the reasons why children leave home, close to one-third said they had had an argument with a family member. Another third said their parents were too strict while some said they simply did not like living at home.
Data also showed that while 23 percent of runaways were eventually found by police, 46 percent chose to return home after being away for a while. It also showed that 43 percent of missing children were found near their homes.
Moreover, 75 percent of those returning home said they had thought about going home, but decided not to for fear of facing punishment from their parents. After returning home, 65 percent were inclined to leave home again.
Children Welfare League Foundation CEO Alicia Wang (王育敏) said that these wandering minors were likely to encounter other problems, such as teenage pregnancy.
Wang also said that parents with missing children may feel ashamed or angry about what happened and advised them to think positively.
"Parents should ask themselves how close they are to their children. Do I know their friends? What are they thinking? Have they been under a lot of stress lately?" she said.
To help parents communicate with their children, the center has set up an "Instant Messenger of Love" (愛的即時通) feature on its Web site at http://www.children.org.tw.
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