USEFUL SITE: Use the Internet to help a child

When a child is abducted, every moment counts. AMBER Alerts makes every effort to capture those precious moments after a child has been abducted through an emergency broadcast to the general public in the area.

Delivered via radio, television, and cable stations, and displayed on electronic traffic-condition signs, AMBER Alerts requests public assistance in recovering the child. These are legitimate alerts run through the Department of Justice. As of the end of 2006, the program had helped rescue more than 200 children nationwide since the fall of 2002 when it became a program coordinated nationally.

AMBER stands for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response," and was founded and named in memory of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996. (Georgia and Arkansas are the only states that have different names for this service: in Georgia, it's known as "Levi's Call," and in Arkansas as "Morgan Nick Amber Alert.") (Learn more about AMBER Alert initiatives.)

You can also get local alerts via e-mail, and through text messages to your cell phone or other wireless device. It will take you moments to register for these alerts, but the benefits could last a child's lifetime.

• Sign up for email notifications, and follow the directions on your screen.
• Sign up for text message AMBER Alerts to your phone or other wireless device, and follow the directions on your screen.

Linda