Facebook partners with Amber Alerts

What do people do when they first wake up, get to the office or finally put the kids to bed at night? Go on Facebook, of course.

Facebook has become the place to be, so to speak, when you catch a few spare minutes in your day. So it makes total sense that Facebook announced a partnership yesterday with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to add Amber alert pages. Now users can sign up for Amber alerts in their state.

Previously, Amber alerts have mainly been announced via radio, television, and on electronic roadway signs, but there have been some small attempts at utilizing social networking systems in the past. While Twitter and MySpace did have some initial success with Amber alerts, Facebook has the potential to reach millions of users. The only catch is that users must sign up. There will be no mandatory outreach; it’s purely optional.

According to the Wall Street Journal, each state has its own Facebook Amber Alert page, so when users become a fan, they will immediately get alerts in their news feed when there is a missing child in their area. Click here to see a sample from the New York Amber alert page which already has over 2,000 ‘likes’ and counting.

Regardless of its voluntary nature, the opportunity to reach millions is real. We have all witnessed the same Facebook message spread from user to user, from parent to parent. In fact, my colleague Dana wrote about an amusing Facebook thread going around just yesterday detailing an 11-step program for those considering having kids. Like many others, I received it at least 5 times. The tendency for information to go immediately viral is big.

And let’s face it, who isn’t on Facebook these days? Young and old, nearly everyone I know has a page. I think it’s a smart way to get photos of missing kids imprinted in the eyes of local parents.

It certainly can’t hurt. A missing child is a parent’s worst nightmare and any avenue that can be utilized to help find a missing child deserves to be explored.

Image: Wikipedia

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