Missing Children: Should Parents Be Punished?

3357 Words Jun 6th, 2008 14 Pages
The word “missing child” often calls to mind of tragic and frightening incident as it was always reported in the national news. Stories about missing children, especially those abducted, have always tugged at the heartstrings of all Malaysians. A total of 5996 children went missing from homes since 2004. Although most of them were found, 1904 still remain missing (Pakiam, 2007). Lately, all the Malaysians are in shock over the death of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin and had recalled the tragic that happened on Ang May Hong two decades ago that was once sent a shockwave throughout the country. The whole nation has now been brought together to face this issue with a more serious attitude. According to the Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, parents who …show more content…
Therefore, some teenagers might run away from home with their friends just to show that they are part of the group. Adolescents these days spent more time with their friends who have same thoughts and interest more often than their parents. Thus, they are likely to seek advice and opinions when it comes to decision making. They tend to follow what their friends tell them to do. This shows that peers influence is an important and powerful factor that affects teenagers in decision making.

Thirdly, some children who tend to look for more freedom that they feel their parents are restricting and often choose to run away from home. There are children, especially the teenagers run away from home to look for more freedom. In year 2006, youth run away from home in search of freedom is the third most common factor of missing youth cases which accounted 16 odd percent. (Malaysian Today, 2007). Parents’ restrictions are actually for the well being of the children. For example, curfew set by the parents that restricts the children to go out late night with the purpose to ensure the child’s safety makes the child think that his or her parents are possessive. Immature mindset blinded adolescents’ eyes and hearts; they feel that their parents do not respect their human rights but never talk to their parents about the problem.