Amber Alerts coming to Facebook

Amber Alerts, which have helped find 525 missing children since their start in 1996, are coming to Facebook.

Facebook users in the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands can now sign up to receive Amber Alerts in their region.

The bulletins will be sent to their Facebook pages the same way they see updates from friends or businesses they like.

The announcement was made Wednesday by Facebook, the Justice Department and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Today is the 15th anniversary of the kidnapping and murder of Amber Hagerman, the program's namesake, who was 9 years old when she was killed.

A similar system was adopted in New York in 2002, a year before a nationwide system was signed into law.

Facebook says Amber Alerts have "helped rescue more than 443 children nationwide."

The social networking site said that users can add the Amber Alert widget to either their walls or boxes tab on their Facebook page, or set up an entire tab for it.

"The Amber Alert widgets automatically update every 10 minutes, displaying any current alerts, or if there are none, the text 'There are no active alerts' will appear," the site explains.

"You can also post Alerts to your News Feed, send your friends' Alerts, and update your status to broadcast the Alerts," according to Facebook, which said the system covers alerts for both the United States and Canada. - AP and staff