I think passports are seen as a normal thing to have in other countries. In the US, the government seems to consider it a thing you only apply for if you have specific plans to travel soon.
Other countries might require presence or a signed affidavit from both parents when the child is actually flying out of the country.
Yes, and parental kidnapping is a real issue that happens fairly frequently. This is a reasonable policy - it might not be in a smaller country but if you're in Missouri and getting a passport for a kid, you are going a long distance no matter what.
Yeah but it's a retarded rule. The other parent can sail the kid into international waters and back without a passport, this prevents nothing. If someone's willing to kidnap a child this does absolutely nothing to stop them, except make sure any international border crossing is done in the most dangerous ways possible.
Do you have evidence this heavily reduces kidnappings? The biggest change I see here is kidnapping that cross borders are now guaranteed to go through uncontrolled crossing rather than ports of entry, endangering these children more than had they been kidnapped with a passport.
