by REERA YOO | @reeraboo
editor@charactermedia.com
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) announced on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with Facebook to help find missing children through emergency alerts, reports Yonhap News Agency.
South Korea is the fourth country to partner with Facebook on missing child alerts, following the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.
Seoul police previously used its own messaging app to send alerts to public institutions about missing children. Now, under the new agreement, the police will be required to send details of the missing child to the news feed of Facebook users who reside near the location the child was last seen, according to Yonhap.
Since there are nearly 14 million Facebook users in Korea, the police are expecting to see more responses from citizens.
Along with 21 other countries, South Korea is part of the Global Missing Children’s Network (GMCN). Since 2007, Korea has annually observed International Missing Children’s Day on May 25 to commemorate missing and abducted children while celebrating those who have been recovered. On this day, victims’ families and law enforcers usually wear green ribbons, a symbol that helps people remember missing children.
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Featured image via Childfund Korea/YouTube
