Michael Jackson Official Site

Written and produced by Jackson, “Do You Know Where Your Children Are” was first recorded during the Bad sessions and further developed during the early Dangerous sessions. The title derives from a popular public service announcement that ran on American television from the 1960s through the 1980s, often just before the nightly news. In a note discovered by Jackson’s Estate, Jackson writes of the inspiration for the song: “Song is about kids being raised in a broken family where the father comes home drunk and the mother is out prostituting and the kids run away from home and they become the victims of rape, prostitution and the hunter becomes the hunted. So they are out on the street. Do you know where your children are? It’s twelve o’clock. They are somewhere out on the street. Just imagine how scared they are. It’s about the runaway problem we have in America. They become the victims of prostitution, of selling their bodies.” This updated take accentuates the song’s driving riff with radiant synths, punctuated by a soaring guitar solo.

Father comes home from work and he’s scared to death

Mother cries for the kid, and the note she read

Father runs to the table he says “What’s going on”

Mother cries desperately, “Our little baby’s gone!”

Do you know where your children are?

Because it’s now 12 o’clock

If they’re somewhere out on the street

Just imagine how scared they are

Do you know where your children are?

Because it’s now 12 o’clock

If they’re somewhere out on the street

Just imagine how scared they are

She wrote that she is tired of step daddy using her

Saying that he’ll buy her things, while sexually abusing her

Just think that she’s all alone somewhere out on the street

How will this girl survive?

She ain’t got nothing to eat

Do you know where your children are?

Because it’s now 12 o’clock

If they’re somewhere out on the street

Just imagine how scared they are

Do you know where your children are?

Because it’s now 12 o’clock

If they’re somewhere out on the street

Just imagine how scared they are

Save me

Save me

Save me

Save me

Save me

Save me

Save me

Save me

Save me

Now she’s on the move, she’s off to Hollywood

She says she wants to be a star, she heard the money’s good

She gets off from the train station, the man is waiting there

“I’ll show you where the money is, girl just let down your hair”

He’s taking her on the streets of Sunset Boulevard

She’s selling her body, ha girl that will take her far

The police come round the corner, somebody there told

He’s arresting this little girl, she’s only 12 years old

Do you know where your children are?

Because it’s now 12 o’clock

If they’re somewhere out on the street

Just imagine how scared they are

(Repeat)