Starting today, for Facebook users in the United States, Amber Alerts will be coming to people’s walls.
Amber Alerts are messages sent across text, television, radio and more to alert people in the area of a child abduction. The warning system was started after the 1996 kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. More than 700 children have been found as a result of the alerts.
Facebook is working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to send the alerts to users’ mobile phones if they are in a search area where a child has been abducted.
Last March, a missing 11-year-old girl was found in a South Carolina motel room when a motel clerk called police after seeing an Amber Alert on Facebook, according to the company and reports at the time.
The alerts will include the missing child’s photo, other information that may be relevant and can be shared like other posts.
