In 1996, the Dallas Fort Worth broadcasting company and the local police jointly launched the amber alarm system to help find kidnapped children. Since 2015, amber alerts on Facebook alone have helped deal with many cases endangering children Now, the Amber Alert function has also come to instagram
It is jointly developed with organizations including the National Center for missing and exploited children (ncmec), the International Center for missing and exploited children, the British National Crime Agency, the attorney general's office of Mexico, and the Australian federal police.
Since these alerts are specific to the search area, the latest update will display amber alerts on the user's instagram when the law enforcement department activates, provided that the user is within the specified search area. The alert will show details about the child, the location of the kidnapping and other important details in order to expand the scope of the search.
Michelle delaune, President and CEO of ncmec, said: "instagram is a platform based on the power of photos, which makes it very suitable for Amber Alert Program. We know that photos are an important tool to find missing children. By expanding the audience of instagram, we will be able to share photos of missing children with more people."
At present, amber alerts can be used on instagram and will soon be fully used in 25 countries and regions. The list of these 25 countries and regions is as follows: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, Ireland, Jamaica, South Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, China, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.