Facebook has just announced the collaboration with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children that will bring AMBER alerts to newsfeeds, in an attempt to locate and find missing children.
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The AMBER alerts will have geolocation enabled and will be served to users that are in the same area where a child has gone missing. The alerts will include photos and details and will be visible both on desktop and mobile.
Users that see these alerts can choose to share the AMBER alert card with friends. Their post will also include a direct link to National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children that will offer all the latest developments about each case separately.
This new feature will work as follows: Each time a missing child is reported at the Police, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children will release a poster about it through Facebook‘s System. The poster will be visible to users that are in the same search area, as defined by law enforcement.
As the announcement reads:
[quote]For years, people have used Facebook to post news articles about missing children and AMBER Alerts. In several cases, someone saw a post or photo in their News Feed, took action, and a child was safely returned.[/quote]
As more and more people turn to social networks during times of crisis, social networks are tuning in to help both affected and rescue services. Facebook has already released a service that allows people locate their loved ones during disasters and has already helped raising millions of dollars to help fight the Ebola virus.
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