Ellee Seymour

Former dull, grey baggage carousels at Beijing airport in China are now adorned in colourful advertising as it embraces consumerism. The airport has 15 baggage carousels and traffics 48 million visitors annually.

Then it occurred to me that this would be the perfect platform at airports to display posters of children who have been abducted and could be flown out of the country.

What do you think?

There was a time when it was considered cool to smoke in films, but now it is to be censored along the same lines as sex, violence and swearing - suitable only for over 18s in America where it will be R-rated.

As the non-smoking film maker Marshall Merskovitz points out,  the world is filled with terrible things that can influence children, but should every terrible thing warrant an R-rating?  We are surrounded by many of these terrible things.

“The problem is that excess drinking is a terrible thing and also kills millions of people a year. And influences young people. Driving automobiles irresponsibly is a truly terrible thing and kills tens of thousands of people a year and influences young people. Guns are terrible things. Sexual harassment is a terrible thing. Robbery is a terrible thing. War is a terrible thing. Being mean to other children is a terrible thing.”

The film industry said the move demonstrates its growing commitment to reducing teenage smoking. If Lois Lane lights up, for example, a movie that previously would have earned a PG-13 rating, based on its levels of sex, violence, and vulgarity, might now get an R –rating and a warning to parents that the film glamorises smoking.

The cynic might say that Mersckovitz knows his films will lose money if they can’t be shown to wider audiences. Will it mean the kiss of box-office death?

While not wishing to promote teenage smoking, I think this censorship is going too far, that children’s main influencers are in the home, their school and neighbourhood.

Louis Anthony Mackerley looks a fine young man in the latest picture produced by age progression techniques, an invaluable tool used for missing people searches.

Louis hasn’t been seen since June 1984 when he was seven after returning home from school in Allentown, Pennsylvania and telling his babysitter he was going to play with some friends two doors down from his home. Louis never returned home and has not been seen or heard from since.

Earlier that year, Louis told his parents, his school nurse, and a psychologist that he had been molested by a couple named Frank and Elizabeth, but his accounts of alleged incidents differed. Police were notified, but could not find enough evidence to warrant an investigation as Mackerley could not provide any last names or addresses in his accounts.

A strange twist followed in 1988 when David Riggs, a self-proclaimed private investigator from New York, who claimed to have founded an organization called Search Seven to look for Mackerley and other missing children, was arrested in West Virginia after he accosted five young boys and offered to pay them to pose wearing bikini underwear. He was ruled out as a suspect.

Mackerley is described as friendly and talkative, but a loner and a timid child who was afraid to sleep alone. He had a short attention span and had trouble writing and paying attention in school. His parents believe he may be alive and not remember who he is. His case was re-opened in 2004, 20 years after his disappearance.

Age progression shows how he would have looked aged 10 and, more recently, three years ago at 27. He looks a fine young man.

In memory of those who are still missing.