A report from Gameguru said about 800,000 children go missing in the US, and 77,000 in the UK each year. A British University aims to use mobile game in finding missing children. People will respond more social responsibility by a simple game.

Video games have come a long way in helping people. Now, a British University aims to use them in one more noble way. Digital Media Institute at the University of East London is working on a technology for a serious game project called Lost & Found. This game will help mobile phone owners to use their gadgets to help to trace missing children.

Professor Lizbeth Goodman who is the director of the Digital Media Institute disclosed the project at Women In Games 2007 at the University of Wales. She said that they have been working on Lost & Found for many years and described it as a portable system to track missing and exploited children (and adults).

Usually, photos of missing children are printed on the back of milk cartons. But now, this technology will take advantage of GPS and mapping technology in the mobile phones, wherein users who have signed up for alerts, get a notice when someone in their area goes missing. Therefore, if they see a person who resembles a photo of a missing child, users can take a photo that will alert the authorities. The game would then offer people a series of objectives and mobilize groups to block roads and search fields.

Professor Lizbeth Goodman says, "When youre drinking your milk in the morning theres always a picture of someone who is missing. However, who can remember what the person on your milk carton looks like at the end of a busy day? If it is a project that sounds worthy, or that there are cops involved, or that you have to hand over personal data, people are not interested. But if we let them use an avatar, theyre ok with that."

The Lost & Found" mobile game project are being partnered by big names like the BBC R&D, Microsoft Research, The UK Serious Crimes Unit, and The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (US). It is estimated that about 800,000 children go missing in the US, and 77,000 in the UK each year.

It is a really good thing that such video games are being developed. Who knows, maybe they can even make games for consoles and PCs that will let people help in such noble causes. Last month we had reported about the Folding@Home project, where PS3 gamers use their console to form a grid computer system for finding cures to diseases.

Anyway, if you would like to contribute in any way, click here to head to the Smart Labs page.