Facebook To Begin Adding Missing-Child Alerts To Nearby Users' News Feeds
By social media editor Melony Roy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Facebook will tap its 185 million US users to help find and return missing children. It's part of a new partnership between the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the social media colossus.
Starting today, Facebook will deliver the center's "Amber Alerts" to its users news feeds in targeted search areas after a child has been abducted.
The posts will appear in your news feed like any other, except it will be marked "Amber Alert."
The alerts will include photographs and other details about the missing child. Users can share the alert with friends and link directly to the National Center's missing child poster, which always has the most up-to-date information about the case.
According to the US government's Office of Justice Programs, Amber alerts have saved the lives of 723 children since 1996.