McCanns back YouTube missing children launch

Harnessing the massive popularity of video-sharing website YouTube will help other families of missing children, the parents of Madeleine McCann said today.

Ninety-nine days after their four-year-old daughter was abducted while on holiday in Portugal, Kate and Gerry McCann announced the launch of a new section on the internet site.

Called 'Don’t You Forget About Me', the YouTube channel will be devoted to helping to find missing youngsters like Madeleine.

It will feature videos of the children with the aim of raising public awareness about their disappearance.

The McCanns said they hoped it would find a different audience among the millions of young people worldwide who log on to the YouTube every day.

Mrs McCann said: “With Madeleine’s abduction, we have been concerned about her crossing borders, and the internet reaches the whole world.

“We have had so much goodwill and support from everyone, we wanted to give something tangible back to help others.”

Her husband added that it was a “really exciting innovation”.

He told the BBC: “The idea is that it’s using new media in a way that a younger generation really understand, putting music to pictures, and giving a completely new angle to missing children.

“We’ve always said we wanted to channel all this good feeling into something that will benefit other people.”

The new site will be managed and policed by the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington DC.

There are already 229 videos connected to the campaign to find Madeleine on YouTube, one of which alone has been visited 50,000 times.