By Emmanuel Elebeke

A technology driven company, Meta on Wednesday launched a tracking strategy for missing children called AMBER Programme on facebook and Instagram.

The Amber Programme, which was launched in partnership with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking, NAPTIP, is a programme aimed at helping to find abducted children by sending AMBER Alert to the Alert call Facebook and Instagram community in Nigeria.

AMBER Alert is designed to increase the chances of finding missing children by putting more people on the lookout for them.

When activated by law enforcement agency, the AMBER Alert will appear on the Facebook and Instagram Feed of users within the designated search area, enabling them to share the information instantly with friends or contact the authorities if they have leads.

Meta Head of Public Policy, Anglophone West Africa, Meta, Adaora Ikenze, explained that the AMBER Alert is designed to include important information about the missing child such as a photo description, location of the abduction, and other relevant available information to aid in immediate identifying the missing child.

Meta’s Director of Trust and Safety, Emily Vacher said: “Already available across 28 countries globally, we are proud to partner with NAPTIP to make AMBER Alert available in in Nigeria – the second African Country to join this programme. When there is a reported case of a missing child, the most valuable thing one can do is share information as quickly as possible. By working with law enforcement in helping to share the right information with the right people, we hope that missing children will be safely reunited with their families faster.’’

According to Ikenze, ‘’the partnership with NAPTIP is another important milestone in reinforcing Meta’s on-going commitment to Nigeria. We know our app can be used as a force for good, and the AMBER Alert launch across Instagram and Facebook highlights this.’’

She further stated that Meta would continue to expand the programme globally as soon as possible.

In terms of inter-agency collaboration, she said a team had been set up for a seamless collaboration among all relevant stakeholders, as well as information sharing.

She however, urged every agency to report timely to NAPTIP any case of child missing or trafficking for prompt action.

On how AMBEER Alert works, Vacher said the decision to declare an AMBER Alert is made by NAPTIP when investigating a suspected abduction case, they must first determine if the case meets their AMBER Alert criteria, which includes: the abduction of a child age 17 or younger; NAPTIP must have reasonable belief that there has been an abduction; NAPTIP believes the victim is in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or exploitation and there is enough description ton issues an AMBER Alert to assist in recovering the child .

Once these conditions have been met, NAPTIP will then notify Meta’s Global Security Operations Centre, which operates 24/7, that verified AMBER Alert is active .

Meta will then send the alert to the News Feeds of people located in targeted search areas in Nigeria.

In her remarks, the Director General of NAPTIP, Dr, Fatima Waziri said, ‘’Today we are partnering with Meta to launch the AMBER Alert Programme on Facebook and Instagram to help ensure faster response in finding missing children.

‘’With these alerts, more people can be on the lookout for kids reported missing in their vicinity and report all leads to relevant authorities. NAPTIP cherishes every aspect of the intending collaboration and we are indeed glad to be on board with Meta.’’

AMBER Alert was first launched on Facebook in 2015 and since then has assisted in hundreds of successful child endangerment cases in the US and around the world.

Recall that one of the success stories of AMBER Alert was in 2020 when Amanda Disley and her husband helped rescue 11-year old Charlotte Moccia of Springfield, Massachusetts , after seeing an AMBER Alert non Facebook. Before that, a four-year-old girl was recovered after Kaytlin Brown saw an AMBER Alert issued on Facebook on her launch break and quickly took action.

Just this year, Meta added Instagram to the AMBER Alert Programme across the world by making it available in 28 additional countries, and now, in Nigeria.

As part of the launch of AMBER Alerts in Nigeria, Meta and NAPTIP have agreed to educate users in Nigeria on how to identify AMBER Alerts on their feed and what to do when they see an alert.