Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) plans to step in and contribute in helping people find their missing kids back to their homes by introducing Amber Alerts in the users’ news feeds section.
The most popular social networking media platform has millions of online users at all times. It could serve as an effective media for issuing alerts and information about missing children. The company has said that it would soon help law enforcement officials by exploiting the technology it has at its disposal. Facebook’s initiative won it much applause from law enforcement.
The alert has been named after Amber Hagerman, a nine years old Arlington girl who was kidnapped and killed in 1996. The girl was kidnapped at the parking lot of a grocery store and four days after the incident, her dead body was discovered in a drainage ditch. To this day, her slaying is a mystery. Yesterday, the anniversary of the day when she was abducted was observed as National Amber Alert Awareness Day.
Facebook’s Amber Alert would appear as secondary news feed item in the user’s area, which would give away short description of the case. The news can be expanded and read in detail and users will be directed to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) website, when they wish to do so.
In this context, the company’s trust and safety manager, Emily Vacher, said that she has been developing the technology collaboratively with the NCMEC. Law enforcement agencies already deploy electronic billboards to share car descriptions, names and license plates. Facebook could provide another popular media to reach out the a huge mass easily and quickly.
Vacher claimed that the users’ inclination towards sharing such information to reach out to the maximum number of people has been an inspiration for the work. She is a former FBI agent.
