NCMEC "Restricted" Cases

We've noticed on a couple of our missing kids that NCMEC states the case as "restricted". Not knowing what that meant, I emailed them to ask--below is the answer to what "restricted" means.


Dear Molly,

Thank you for your message.

For our agency to create posters of missing children, certain criteria
must be met. The child must have an active case with law enforcement,
the child must be entered into the police computer database, and the
child's legal guardian or law enforcement must approve poster
distribution. When a case is "restricted" it means that some or all of
the criteria is no longer being met. Usually this is resolved quickly
and either the case is recovered or the posters are put back up.


NCMEC Call Center

Re: NCMEC "Restricted" Cases


by kiwimom on Tue Oct 05, 2010 5:41 pmThanks Molly! So commonly it could be that family members contact them to say their child has been found and so NCMEC restrict it until they confirm with LE.

(I didn't ask Tom this today, asked a couple months ago but, combined the 2 threads we had on this topic.

I had another child that the "restricted" come up on, I put it in the "resolved-other" thread and then sent the info to Tom, he said it was fine to put it there until we hear that they have been found. So, that's what I've done.
It might be better to have a thread dedicated to that solely tho', go ahead and ask him--I think it's a good idea.