Joy Onuorah

Instagram has launched Amber Alerts, a feature to notify users of missing children in their localities.

The social media platform announced the rollout of the feature in a statement via its blog on Wednesday.

The alerts will be available in the United States and 24 other countries.

The feature according to Instagram, will include details about the missing child, such as a photo, description, and location of the suspected abduction.

The feature is also designed to be shared with friends on the platform to further spread awareness.

Speaking about the feature, Emily Vacher, the director of trust and safety at Meta, Instagram’s parent company, said the alerts will be specific to the search area.

She said if a user gets one, it means there is an active search for a missing child nearby.

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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.”

Amber Alerts will be fully available in the next couple of weeks in 25 countries including 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.

Google also began issuing similar alerts to users of its Search and Maps tools in 2012.