O Instagram It is one of the favorite social networks of young people. This is also where a picture is worth a thousand words. As such, starting this week, Instagram will start showing alerts of missing or kidnapped children near the user's location.
This is an extension of the alerts known as AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) which, although born in the US in the 90s, is now implemented in more than twenty countries.
When a child goes missing and the disappearance is considered high risk (as in the case of an abduction), the local police can issue an alert to all mobile phones in a certain area with a description of the child, the abductor and details of a vehicle involved .
Smartphones usually have the option of having such alerts enabled by default, although they can be disabled. Now these alerts will also appear within the Instagram application, with photos, if any.
The aim is to draw the attention of users who have disabled other alert systems or who are not paying attention to text messages and other notifications. One button inside the alert will allow direct contact with the police forces.
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Company Meta will use different indicators to determine who sees these alerts, even if the app is not allowed to know the exact location of the phone. The IP number or city where the user is registered will be used to determine which alerts you receive.
Facebook has had this feature built in since 2015, but Meta now plans to add it to the rest of its social networks. Given that users spend, on average, more time on Instagram than on Facebook, it's likely that alerts will be more useful on Facebook.
the notification of AMBER alert will start working in 25 countries in the next few weeks, although Angola is not among them at the moment. The countries where the service will be activated are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, Ireland, Jamaica, South Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Africa South America, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and United States.
Meta mentions that it is currently working for this service to reach many other countries.
