Facebook shared its latest safety initiative today with a new feature focused on rescuing missing children. Through a partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Facebook will now include AMBER Alerts in the timeline of its users boosting exposure of the critical information needed in such cases.
“When local or state police determine that a case qualifies for an AMBER Alert, the alert is issued by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and distributed through the Facebook system with any available information, including a photograph of the missing child, a license plate number, the name and description of the child and suspected abductor.”
Unlike the iPhone’s native government alerts feature including AMBER Alerts, Facebook users will not receive a push notification for the information, but the information will be viewable in detail when browsing the Facebook timeline when an AMBER Alert is active in a nearby community.
Facebook’s integration with the AMBER Alert system will be available on both its mobile apps and the web. Facebook says users have used the social network for years to share critical AMBER Alert information leading to the recovery of missing children in some instances, and its new integration increases that exposure and makes sharing alerts easier.
