From today on, there is an additional way to help locate a missing child in Luxembourg, and that is by simply checking your Facebook News Feed. Facebook’s partnership with the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Internal Security, the Police and AMBER Alert Europe is the latest addition to AMBER Alert Luxembourg, which was launched in April 2016.

AMBER Alert allows Facebook users to receive specific alerts on their timelines whenever a child is abducted or is reported missing and is at imminent risk of harm.

The initiative was launched during a joint press conference held today at the Police HQ, presided over by the Minister of Justice, Félix Braz, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Internal Security, Francine Closener and Emily Vacher, Facebook’s Trust & Safety Director. Through this cooperation, the partners hope to inform even more people as quickly as possible when the police issue an AMBER Alert.

An AMBER Alert is an emergency message the police issues when a child is abducted or has gone missing, and the police fears that the life or health of the child is in danger. From now on, Facebook users in Luxembourg will automatically receive an AMBER Alert in their news feed. The message contains a photograph and vital information that will assist the public in locating the child. When users press ‘Learn More’, they will access more detailed information that can help retrieving the missing child as swiftly as possible. This may include the make and model of any vehicle involved in the abduction. The users can also share the message with their network of friends via the ‘Share’ button.

This initiative is an extremely important collaboration for the immediate, accurate and timely distribution of information to the people in the area of the missing child. Talking about the importance of the AMBER Alert system, Ms. Εmily Vacher, stated: “Keeping our community safe means everything to us at Facebook. And we know that when a child is missing, the most valuable thing we can do is get information out to the public as quickly as possible. By getting the right information to the right people, at the right time, through AMBER Alerts on Facebook, we hope to help reunite missing children with their families faster.”

Felix Braz, Minister of Justice welcomes the new partnership: “The association of AMBER Alert and Facebook in Luxembourg increases exponentially the chance of rapidly finding a missing child as a much wider public can now be reached. This smart cooperation sustains significantly the efforts adopted by the agreement signed between the government and AMBER Alert Europe.”

Francine Closener, Secretary of State for Internal Security: “Given that Facebook is the most widely used social networking site in the world and also in Luxembourg, this new functionality will enable us to make sure that these alerts reach a greater number of people within a very short time. I therefore very much welcome this collaboration with Facebook, which we see as a great enhancement of the emergency alert system.”

Frank Hoen, President of AMBER Alert Europe, who developed AMBER Alert Luxembourg: “This cooperation with Facebook tremendously increases the reach of an AMBER Alert. Following successful launches in Malta and The Netherlands, we are thankful Luxembourg is now joining our cooperation with Facebook as well.”