Instagram integrates AMBER Alerts into its app.
AMBER Alerts, which is short for American's Missing: Child Broadcast Emergency Response, was launched 26 years ago as a national system to help find lost and abducted children by sharing alerts on TV, radio, traffic signals and SMS alerts. You know them as those loud and important notifications you get on your smartphone every time a kid goes missing.
Now this alert system is rolling out (opens in a new tab) on one of the world's most popular social media platforms. When the police activate an AMBER Alert, a new message will appear on your Instagram feed notifying you of the boy's disappearance.
The AMBER message will contain a photograph of the child, a brief description of where the child was last seen, and any other information available to help locate the child. You will be able to share the alert with your friends, and if someone manages to see the missing person, Instagram provides a phone number where you can contact the local police department.
Meta-owned Instagram said in a statement that AMBER alerts are specific to your general area and that the app will use a combination of IP addresses, phone location and city listed on your profile to decide who gets which notification.
Instagram partners with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the United States and several other international organizations to make this feature possible.
AMBER alerts on Instagram will eventually roll out to 24 more countries in the coming weeks, though they will likely go by a different name. AMBER Alerts is an American system, but other countries have their own child abduction alerts.
Analysis: Successful Alerts
Adding an AMBER alert to the digital space is nothing new. Google (opens in a new tab) has integrated these alerts into its search and maps service since 2012. Meta did the same in 2015 by adding AMBER alerts to the Facebook feed. And just like Instagram, Google and Facebook post a photo of the missing child and other details that can help find the child. The good news about these mobile AMBER alerts is that they are proven effective.
According to the US Department of Justice, 123 children have been found as a direct result of these wireless AMBER alerts. A Meta representative told us that Facebook AMBER Alerts have contributed to "hundreds of successful child endangerment cases around the world."
It's wonderful to see these systems working as they should and we look forward to seeing other applications integrating them.