Instagram has launched an Amber Alert feature to help find missing children in the localities of its users.
Gatekeepers News reports that the picture and video-sharing platform announced the rollout of the feature in a statement via its blog on Wednesday.
The Amber alerts which started rolling out on Wednesday will be fully available in 25 countries in the coming weeks and will include details about the missing child, such as a photo, description, and location of the suspected abduction.
Instagram said the feature is designed to be shared with friends on the platform to further spread awareness.
Emily Vacher, the Director of Trust And Safety at Meta, Instagram’s Parent Company, said the alerts will be specific to the search area.
Vacher said if a user gets one, it means there is an active search for a missing child nearby.
“We know that the chances of finding a missing child increase when more people are on the lookout, especially in the first few hours,” Vacher said.
“With this update, if an Amber Alert is activated by law enforcement and you are in the designated search area, the alert will now appear in your Instagram feed.”
Here are the 25 countries the feature will be available: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, and Ireland.
Others are Jamaica, Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Ukraine, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, and the US.
