Nghe An: The phenomenon of children running away from home, what is the cause?

The whole community is confused.

Do Luong District Police have just detained Nguyen Ngoc Khoat (born in 1989, residing in Lam Thao District, Phu Tho Province) to investigate the act of having sexual intercourse with a person aged 13 to under 16. Khoat was just extradited from Dak Nong after running away from home with a 14-year-old girl. During this time, the two had sex many times.

More than a month ago, the family of Nguyen Thi T. (14 years old), an 8th grader at Thuong Son Secondary School, panicked and reported that their daughter was missing. At that time, T. was sent by her mother to buy medicine, but did not return home. After many days of unsuccessful searching, the family reported to the police. During the investigation, through camera footage, it was discovered that T. had left the area with Khoat - a married man who had temporarily taken up residence as a worker at a local wood workshop.

Khoat (middle) was transferred to Do Luong district for temporary detention. Photo: Contributor

Five days later, the authorities of Do Luong district continued to receive a call for help from the family of Nguyen Van Su, residing in Thuan Son commune, regarding the disappearance of his son, Nguyen Van H. (18 years old), a 12th grade student at the Do Luong District Continuing Education Center, for the past 14 days. The Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Police Department investigated and assisted the family in the search. Do Luong police then had to ask for help from professional units of the Ministry of Public Security and the police of provinces and cities. According to the family, since the afternoon of March 12, H. left home and went missing. To date, there has been no information received about this male student.

Meanwhile, according to the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police, in March, the unit received and successfully tracked down 2 reports of 4 missing cases from the locality. In which, the cause was determined to be that the children left home to go to another locality for many days without asking for their parents' permission. Accordingly, on the evening of March 13, a couple residing in Khanh Hop Commune, Nghi Loc District, went to the police station of this commune to report the incident of two girls, both 10th grade students of Cua Lo Town Continuing Education Center, going out together and then suddenly going missing, the family could not contact them.

Police work with the family of 3 children who got lost and made up stories about being kidnapped. Photo: Contributor

Dozens of officers and soldiers from the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police and Nghi Loc District Police had to search all over Cua Lo Town, Nghi Loc District and Vinh City but found no results. Surprisingly, a day later, the two children returned home by themselves. There, they confessed that they had invited each other to visit friends in Tan Ky District, about 80km away. The reason they went without telling their families was because they were afraid that if they asked for permission, their parents would not let them go.

Not long ago, a family in Vinh City was also shocked to announce that their 11-year-old son and his friend had “gone missing,” causing the local police to have a hard time searching for them. But a day later, the child’s biological mother from Thua Thien Hue Province called to report that the two children were in Hue City in normal health. These continuous “disappearances” were widely shared on social media, causing panic in the community. Some people were even worried, thinking that there was a situation of child kidnapping. However, in reality, most of the children ran away from home for trivial reasons, but caused a lot of trouble for the authorities.

In one case, the children invited each other to go out but got lost for nearly 100km. When the police took them to the headquarters to take their statements in order to take them home, they even made up a story about being kidnapped. After more than 2 hours in the car, when the driver stopped to go to the toilet, the 3 children escaped. At night, all 3 sat down to rest on National Highway 1A and fell asleep until they were discovered by the police. At this time, the children confessed that they had made up the story because they were too scared.

Alarming situation

Lieutenant Colonel Vu Quoc Bao, Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police, said that the phenomenon of minors leaving home without informing their parents of where they are going is a phenomenon that needs to be warned about early, because they simply think of achieving their immediate goals without thinking about the consequences.

Perhaps the children did not fully anticipate the dangers that lurked when they ran away from home, nor did they understand the worries and insecurities of their parents when they saw their children suddenly disappear - something that had never happened before - so they acted impulsively. But in any case, this should not have happened, because dangers and traps can come to the children at any time. Those risks could be being abused, abused, kidnapped, deceived... Therefore, when receiving a request for help from the family, the Criminal Police Department immediately sent out a public announcement to seek help from the online community, relatives and friends.

Police search notices have been popping up lately.

Dr. Duong Thi Thanh Thanh, Head of the Psychology Department, Faculty of Education, Vinh University, said that there are many reasons why minors run away from home without talking to their parents first. It could be because they are bored, because their parents scold them, because they do not get the desired results in their exams, or sometimes it is simply because of ridiculous reasons, such as not being allowed to play with their phones, or because they are too busy playing and get lost. What is more worrying is that some children, after running away, try to make up stories and lie to their parents. For example, in the case of 3 children who got lost from Anh Son district to Do Luong district, and were later discovered in Dien Chau district, they made up stories about being kidnapped, causing public confusion and disruption during the investigation.

However, the main reason why children leave home without permission is due to family reasons. Some parents lack attention, care, and education for their children; or care in the wrong way, in an imposing, stereotyped way, making the children bored, feeling suffocated, so they want to find a free space. Some other parents may impose in the way they raise their children, leading to their children having free thoughts, being undisciplined and not being responsible for themselves and their families. When leaving home without permission, children want to demonstrate their maturity and independence, or they may be running away from divorce, violence, and some other social causes. Regardless of the reason, the increasing number of children leaving home without permission is an alarming phenomenon, fraught with many potential risks.