MESSAGES TO BE VIDEOTAPED : FBI ENLISTS BILL COSBY IN SEARCH FOR MISSING KIDS

Visitors to the Federal Bureau of Investigation soon will see entertainer Bill Cosby’s face prominently displayed at the agency headquarters--but not on the FBI’s most-wanted list.

Cosby, star of the top-rated TV program “The Cosby Show,” will appear in a series of 3-minute videotaped messages about missing children, FBI Director William H. Webster will announce today. “I can’t think of anyone that kids would identify more with,” said FBI spokesman David L. Divan.

At present, more than half a million visitors tour the FBI building here annually. The agency says that as many as two-thirds of the visitors are children.

The FBI said that Cosby’s decision to participate “underscores the importance that the FBI places on this problem.”

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in figures released last month, estimates that each year there are 1 million children who are considered runaways or voluntarily missing, along with 25,000 to 750,000 kidnaped by parents and another 4,000 to 20,000 abducted by strangers.

The Washington-based center receives more than 1,000 telephone calls a day, including calls to its toll-free number, 800-THE-LOST.

Cosby, the father of five children, said he considered the issue of missing children to be of the utmost importance. “If I can extend my efforts to ease the burden of children and parents, I consider it time well spent,” he said.

The videotaped messages will be shown as early as next month to visitors on the FBI tour. They will feature Cosby and be geared to alert children to potentially dangerous situations, such as walking alone or getting into a car with a stranger.

The scripts were written by the FBI and the taping is planned for late this month at Lake Tahoe, where Cosby will be performing.

Cosby’s agent, Norman Brokaw of the William Morris Agency, said Cosby agreed to the FBI’s request to do the messages shortly after the agency approached him earlier this year.