TikTok has rolled out Amber Alerts nationwide in the US following a successful pilot last August in Texas. The collaboration with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) seeks to leverage the video-sharing app's enormous scale to raise awareness and speed up response times when children are missing.
With more than 170 million US users, TikTok aims to make a difference by making Amber Alerts show up directly in users' feeds where they are most likely to notice them.
Successful Trial in Texas Paved the Way
At the test phase in Texas, Amber Alerts on TikTok received more than 20 million views and drove 2.5 million clicks to the NCMEC site. According to the blog post, the massive response indicated that TikTok's audience had become a force that could disseminate urgent information rapidly.
Spurred by these figures, the Chinese social media platform rolled out the feature across the country to harness the responsiveness of its audience and even save lives.
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How Amber Alerts Work on TikTok
Amber Alerts are emergency notifications that are triggered when a child is abducted. While most people are familiar with receiving these alerts on their mobile devices, TikTok is taking it a step further by integrating the alerts directly into its platform.
When an Amber Alert is activated, users in the vicinity of where the child was last seen will receive an alert in their "For You" feed.
The alert includes:
- A picture of the missing child.
- Essential information like the name, age, and description of the child.
- The description of the alleged abductor, if present.
Aside from that, you can click two links prompted by the alert: one to NCMEC for further information and the second to call 911 directly if any information is helpful.
Every Minute Counts When Finding a Missing Kid
With its huge user base and high usage rates, TikTok is in a position to greatly enhance Amber Alerts. As every minute counts in finding missing children, having the alerts pop up in one of the world's most used apps can significantly shorten response times.
Additionally, TikTok is providing NCMEC ad credits to enhance awareness even more and make important messages reach the largest number of individuals. The additional exposure maximizes the opportunity for an individual to identify the missing child and report useful information.
Earlier this year, TikTok rolled out features like parental controls and limits on late-night scrolling to help teenagers maintain healthier online behaviors.
Two years ago, the platform improved its "For You" feed to decrease repetitive patterns that could harm the users. In doing so, they could see "refreshed" content instead of seeing similar videos about depression, extreme dieting, and more.
