The popular social media application Instagram is said to be launching an AMBER alert allowing to help find missing children. The news that came out on the 1st of June 2022 by Emily Vacher, Director of Trust and Safety, Meta, has come with key points that everyone should note and look out for.
KEY POINTS
- The AMBER alert will allow people to see and share notices of missing children in their area
- It will also be available in 25 countries in the coming weeks
- Since 2015, AMBER alerts on Facebook have been successful in helping authorities find and quickly locate missing children
Instagram joined forces with big organisations when developing the feature including the National Center for Missing & Exploiting Children (NCMEC), in the United States, the National Crime Agency in the UK, the Attorney General’s Office in Mexico, the Australian Federal Police, and more.
The alert has been designed carefully allowing people in a designated area to be notified of a missing child. Important details will be included in the alert, including a photo, description, location of the abduction, and any other details that would help the case. Once it has been given, you can share the alert with friends and family too to let people know.
President and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said “Instagram is a platform based on the power of photos, making it a perfect fit for the AMBER Alert program. We know that photos are a critical tool in the search for missing children and by expanding the reach to the Instagram audience, we’ll be able to share photos of missing children with so many more people.”
According to the Instagram blog posts, the AMBER alert feature will be rolled out in the United Arab Emirates in the next couple of weeks. Other countries that will begin to see the changes to their app are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Ukraine, the UK, and the US.
With the AMBER alert feature already tested on Facebook, there have been many success stories. In 2020, Amanda Disley and her husband helped rescue 11-year-old Charlotte Moccia of Springfield, Massachusetts after seeing an AMBER alert on Facebook. This is just one of the stories from the many that helped save a missing child through the power of social media.
What do you think of the AMBER alert on Instagram? Do you think it’s helpful or can you see any disadvantages of having this feature on the app? Let us know by tweeting us @itpliveme.
Stay up-to-date with all of our latest news by subscribing to our Newsletter below.