Before there was social media, amber alerts or text messages, missing children's photos were pasted onto milk cartons. In the 1970s many police departments were hesitant to intervene with noncustodial parent kidnapping. Back then they viewed it as a domestic disagreement rather than kidnapping. The first steps of the milk carton photos of missing children happened when frustrated parents launched a movement to combat the problem - finally giving the crime a name of child snatching. At first, pamphlets were the main source of news to find these children, which were distributed around schools as the children who were taken were usually enrolled in schools with fake names.

In the 1980s, the campaign was broadened to include all kinds of missing children. This then boosted the statistic of missing children as advocates of the movement were then able to say that hundreds of thousands of children went missing every year. This shocking statistic made Dairies pick up upon the terrible epidemic through pamphlets, which then caused them to begin pasting the images of children on milk cartons.  One of the most famous missing children includes Etan Patz, who went missing in 1979 and has been named the first child to be posted on a milk carton. 

Along with milk cartons, some other industries also got involved. Missing children began appearing on pizza boxes, grocery bags, and junk mail envelopes along with the question "Have you seen me?".

Although the milk cartons grew to be a rather important aspect of informing people of missing children, it's unknown whether they actually had more of an effect in finding children.