BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The North Dakota Highway Patrol says the use of Facebook to spread Amber Alerts could help save lives.
Facebook Inc. is working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to send the alerts to users' mobile phones if they are in a search area where a child has been abducted.
Patrol Lt. Tom Iverson says that time is critical when it comes to finding endangered children, and the use of Facebook could be beneficial.
The Amber Alert warning system was started after the 1996 kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas. Since then, more than 700 children have been found as a direct result of the alerts. They're issued over TV and radio, on highway signs, as text messages and over the Internet.