‘Electronic Milk Cartons’ Feature Missing Kids

Trying to improve the reputation of the fledgling phone card industry, GTE is issuing cards with pictures of missing children, calling them “electronic milk cartons.”

The prepaid cards have been available through Texaco stations nationwide for about a month.

“We wanted to add integrity to an industry where service has sometimes fallen short of expectations,” said Gordon Allen, president of GTE Card Services. “There has been a lot of bad press.”

Though prepaid cards have blossomed into a $1 billion industry, fly-by-night distributors have hurt the market’s reputation.

Five percent of sales proceeds from the missing-child cards will go to Child Watch of North America, an Orlando, Fla.-based nonprofit group that helps find missing children and offers them financial assistance.

The cards have already resulted in a few leads, though no children have been found.