Meta is launching AMBER Alerts on Instagram in over 25 countries including Australia, allowing people to see and share notices of missing children in their area.
Since AMBER Alerts on Facebook was launched locally with the Australian Federal Police in 2017, everyday heroes across the world have found missing children in their communities after seeing targeted Facebook notifications.
The chances of finding a missing child increase when more people are on the lookout, especially in the first few hours. From June 2, if an AMBER Alert is activated by law enforcement and an individual is in the designated search area, the alert will now appear in their Instagram feed.
The feature is developed in partnership with organisations like the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the US, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, the National Crime Agency in the UK, the Attorney General’s Office in Mexico, the Australian Federal Police and more.
Similar to Facebook, alerts will be shown to people who are most likely in a position to help – specifically those within the designated search area. The alert will also include important details about the missing child such as a photo, description, location of the abduction and any other available information.
These alerts are rare and specific to the search area. Meta uses a variety of signals, including the city listed on the users’ profile, the IP address and location services (if they have it turned on).
Michelle DeLaune, president and CEO at 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.”
In 2016, an AMBER Alert was issued after a four-year-old girl was abducted in Lakeland, Florida. Kaytlin Brown, an anesthesia technician at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee was on her lunch break when she saw the alert on Facebook, recognised the missing child and quickly took action.