Every 40 seconds, a child goes missing. But what if the entire Internet could join forces to help find these kids and help bring them back home?
This is the vision of entrepreneur Bipin Suresh and his colleague Yang Su, who built Come Back Home. On June 25, 2015, Bipin introduced this project to the Global Shapers, and encouraged SF Shapers and the Global Shapers network to help get more businesses on board with the project.
404 pages are error pages that appear when a user of a website navigates to a page that does not exist, either because the user mistyped a URL or followed a dead link. Usually, an error message: "HTTP 404 - Page Not Found" appears on the site.
But what if, instead of posting an error message without content, these pages could help us locate missing people?
Come Back Home adds an un-intrusive banner with photos of missing people to any website's 404 error pages, in the off-chance that someone who visits the site might recognize the missing people. Come Back Home integrates with multiple missing persons databases including the NCMEC, Interpol and NAMUS, and has more than 5,000 records of missing people from across the world.
Since supporting the project involves adding only one line of code, Shapers are working to add the plugin on their own websites and help engage other businesses and organizations to make better use of their 404 pages to help find missing persons.
To get in touch or support this project, please email sfglobalshapers@gmail.com.
