Earlier this week, Instagram launched ‘AMBER Alerts’ to help locate missing children. The AMBER Alert was rolled out for 25 different countries. This feature has been developed in partnership with various organizations including the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), the Attorney General’s Office in Mexico, the Australian Federal Police, and, more.
In a blog post, Meta mentioned that Facebook has already been using AMBER Alerts since 2015. Also, Facebook was successful in helping authorities quickly locate and find missing children.
How will AMBER Alert work?
AMBER Alert is going to be specific to the search area. This means if an Instagram user receives a notification, it suggests that the search is going in their locality for a missing child.
Instagram will use your info such as your IP address, your city, and location services (if turned on) to decide whether an AMBER Alert should be sent to you.
People who receive the alert can also share it with their family and friends to help locate the missing child.
The alert will have all the important details of the missing child such as his photo, the location of the abduction, and his description.
Countries that will get the AMBER Alert feature
As mentioned above, the AMBER Alert feature has been rolled out for 25 countries. These include the UK, Taiwan, Ukraine, Argentina, Belgium, Australia, Canada, Bulgaria, the US, Korea, Jamaica, Greece, Guatemala, Ecuador, Malaysia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, South Africa, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, Romania, and Ireland.
Director of Trust and Safety at Meta, Emily Vacher said that the chances of finding a missing child will increase when more and more people will be on the lookout, especially during the first few hours.
By introducing the AMBER Alerts on Instagram, Meta is trying its best to support various communities in keeping children safe. This is an extremely important and major step taken toward children’s security.
