I must have missed this when it first came out and was unaware of this information but since seeing the terrible news report on a missing 2 year old in Blairmore Alberta, I learned about a new set-up for the Amber Alert program. Facebook users across Canada will get Amber Alert notices right in their social network news feeds, as part of a new program that aims to leverage the social network’s reach to quickly locate missing children.
Facebook is working with police departments across the country to launch the new alert system that will notify Canadian Facebook users when a child in their area has gone missing. The company is touting the on-line alerts as immediate, targeted, comprehensive, and shareable.
The system is set up to show notifications on users' newsfeeds in the critical hours after a child first disappears. The alerts will display a photo and information on the case, and users can then share that information with others in their network, to help find children who are missing. You can imagine how quickly the news can spread and just how this networking can get millions of eyes looking for a missing child almost instantly.
Via the 'Missing Children Society of Canada', someone interested in participating can donate their social media feed to the "Most Valuable Network', which allows them to notify users directly through Facebook and Twitter, thereby creating an online search party.
Sadly, the outcome of the missing two year old in Alberta became a tragedy and details are forthcoming but the case did spread the news about this vital program and I intend to sign up, plus use that same social media to spread the word and get others to sign up as well.
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