Dutch police have started using Amber Alerts to notify the public of missing or abducted children.
It’s done under a joint initiative of software company Netpresenter and the Netherlands Police Agency. Both say the whole country can be alerted immediately when a child goes missing or is abducted.
Amber Alerts began in the United States in the late 1990s; the U.S. is not the only country now using such alerts; several have similar systems.
The Dutch system will incorporate pop-ups on PCs, large advertising/digital signage screens, e-mail, SMS text, instant messenger, RSS news feeds and Web site alerts via Flash.
The Netherlands Police Agency expects to issue an Amber Alert between five and 10 times a year. It asked Dutch citizens, organizations and companies to download the Amber Alert software.
Netpresenter developed the software in cooperation with the police and provided the platform for free. The Dutch company’s products include screensaver message systems, multimedia newsfeed servers and narrowcasting/digital signage technology. It has offices in the Netherlands, Britain, the United States and Germany.
