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Amanda Connolly
ReporterAmanda Connolly is a reporter for The Next Web, currently based in London. Originally from Ireland, Amanda previously worked in press and ed Amanda Connolly is a reporter for The Next Web, currently based in London. Originally from Ireland, Amanda previously worked in press and editorial at the Web Summit. She’s interested in all things tech, with a particular fondness for lifestyle and creative tech and the spaces where these intersect. Twitter
Facebook has partnered with UK charity Missing People to help raise awareness of missing children in the UK in an attempt to locate them quickly.
Using Facebook’s geo-targeting tools, alerts will be sent to people who are in the best areas to help. Alerts will only be issued if the National Crime Agency deems that the child’s life is in danger.
The alerts will sit second in the users’ news feeds and contain details of when and where the child went missing, as well as a description, photo and contact details.
Missing People CEO Jo Youle said in a statement:
Our aim with Child Rescue Alert is to reach as many people as possible in the local area when a child is abducted or disappears with immediate risk to life.
While we of course hope that we don’t have to use this system, this partnership with Facebook will make a huge difference in extending the number of eyes and ears on the ground when the worst happens.
Facebook already issues AMBER alerts in the US and Canada and similar missing children posts in the Netherlands and South Korea too.
➤ Child Rescue Alert and Facebook launch milestone partnership [Missing People]