An online anti-human trafficking system that rapidly informs citizens of children missing in their area was launched by the Chinese police on Sunday.
The Ministry of Public Security developed the system together with the technical support of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to help police departments nationwide report missing children and gather clues about child trafficking from the public, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Information about missing kids will be publicized on Sina Weibo and mobile map apps within one hour of the report of a disappearance and will automatically be sent to residents within 100 kilometers of the location from which the missing children disappeared.
The platform mainly aims to aid cases in which police have few clues, said Chen Shiqu, an official in charge of the ministry's anti-human trafficking office.
"More people can thus get timely access to accurate information about the lost children via official channels and assist the police in handling trafficking cases," Chen added.
A total of 15 infants were rescued from a 78-member child trafficking gang in Southwest China's Sichuan Province in January. The babies were about to be sold in Shandong Province. According to Xinhua, boys were sold for 50,000 yuan ($7,660) to 60,000 yuan, while girls were sold for between 20,000 and 30,000 yuan.
China has long pledged to fight human trafficking. In 2014, Chinese police rescued 13,000 children and over 30,000 women from traffickers, China News Service said.
