Facebook will begin posting “Amber Alerts” on its users’ news feeds, encouraging its 140 million U.S. daily users to help lookout for missing children.
The alerts, a result of a partnership between Facebook and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, will appear in the second slot of the feed along with a photo and details about the case, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Facebook users already post pictures and updates asking others to help locate their missing children, a trend that Facebook’s head of global safety and policy, Emily Vacher, said inspired the new program.
Users will be notified depending on their geographical location, and won’t receive push notifications.
This Is What Your Facebook Profile Looked Like Over the Last 11 Years
The Original Facebook Group Page, 2004. Before people realized how awesome pictures are.Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2005. Back when Facebook looked a little bit like MySpace. Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page Facelift, 2005. The "the" is finally dropped.Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2006. You no longer need to be reminded "this is you" at the top of your profile page.Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2007. Every profile update still had to begin with "is," forcing you to talk about yourself in the third person.
Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2008. The wall.
Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2009. It only took five years for Facebook to create easy-to-find privacy settings.
Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2010. Facebook starts to get pretty.
Courtesy of FacebookFacebook Profile Page, 2011. Zuckerberg realizes that people love pictures, usually of animals.Courtesy of Facebook Facebook Profile Page, 2012. The timeline allows you (or your parents) to trace your life from birth to death.Courtesy of Facebook Facebook Profile Page, 2013-2014. Facebook introduced a new app, Paper, on Monday.Courtesy of Facebook Facebook Profile Page, 2014-2015. Facebook updated both the newsfeed algorithm and the privacy settings.Courtesy of Alex Fitzpatrick/Facebook