Why Using Facebook for AMBER Alerts Is Such a Good Idea
(Facebook)
You see them on TV and on freeway billboards. You hear them on the radio. You get them on your cellphone. And now you can get them via Facebook.
Today Facebook announced it has teamed up with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to become an official distributor of AMBER Alerts, which seek the help of communities to find missing children.
While technically an acronym — America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response — the alert was named for Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Texas, who was abducted and murdered in January 1996. She was 9 years old.
Since then, more than 725 missing children have been found after an AMBER Alert was issued.
There are several reasons why it makes sense for Facebook to carry Amber Alerts. One is that people are already sharing these alerts informally on Facebook.
(Facebook)
Another is the depth of information that can be shared. Unlike cellphone or radio warnings, AMBER Alerts on Facebook can provide a photo of the child, along with a lot of descriptive detail about when he or she was last seen and with whom. These can be shared and spread across the network with incredible speed.
More important, Facebook is by and large a network for families. Its original audience — college and high school students — has mostly moved on to Instagram, Snapchat, and other services. And well over half of all abductions reported under the AMBER program are made by other family members, usually as the result of a custody dispute.
According to the most recently available report, 194 AMBER Alerts were issued in 2013, involving 243 missing children. Of those, 110 abductions — or 57 percent — were carried out by family members. In 95 percent of cases, the children were recovered within 72 hours. AMBER Alerts played a role in 41 of those recoveries.
Facebook says it will carry AMBER Alerts on the News Feed in its desktop and mobile applications, but the number of alerts you will see will vary depending on your location and the range of the target area determined by law enforcement. They will not trigger notifications on your phone.
Whether using Facebook to send AMBER Alerts will increase the number of children who are found is still to be seen. But even one more would make this effort worth it.
Email Dan Tynan at ModFamily1@yahoo.com.
