Facebook has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to deliver localized alerts for America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response, more commonly known as Amber. Local alerts pages for each U.S. state are starting to send updates to users via the news feed, formally announced at a press conference this morning.
An Amber alert is a bulletin issued when a child is suspected to have been abducted; it’s been in place since 1996, when 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was taken while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. Her body was found four days later, but the murderer’s identity remains a mystery. Six years after its offline debut, the alert system first became available online when AOL allowed users to enter their zip code to receive local alerts back in 2002.
All 50 states in the US. as well as Canada, Australia, France, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Ireland, have Amber alert systems in place, and we expect them to be available via Facebook for all those locations.
Facebook representatives, NCMEC officials, and members of the U.S. Department of Justice spoke about Amber alerts at a press conference this morning. You can watch it on the Facebook Washington, DC page.
Do you think this partnership is a good strategy for Facebook?
