No more milk cartons

We used to see them on milk cartons: faces of missing children, the text describing the child and asking consumers, “Have you seen this child?”

Today parents use social media to ask friends, strangers and anyone who accesses information with the click of a mouse or an index finger: “Have you seen my child?”

The process worked for one Seattle mom who posted her plea on Facebook for her missing daughter Hailey. Soon Hailey was home.

A Missing Persons department is not open 24/7, but social media never closes and a plea for finding a loved one seems to spread within minutes. In a complicated world, especially complicated for struggling teens, social media has become a life-saving blessing.

(S-R archive photo: In this May 18, 2012 photo, Facebook founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, center, rings the opening bell of the Nasdaq stock market)