Facebook Gets Amber Alerts; Teams with Agencies to Help Find Missing Children

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Amber Alerts have come to Facebook.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Department of Justice joined forces with social networking powerhouse Facebook and on Tuesday launched Amber Alert pages to aide in the search for missing children.

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Facebook users in the 50 U.S. states, D.C., 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.

"I think it's really a logical and exciting use of the medium," Ernie Allen, president of the center for missing children told the USA Today. "It's targeted geographically," Allen told the paper. "You're not going to be inundated with them."

The announcement was made Wednesday by Facebook, the Justice Department and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Thursday is the 15th anniversary of the kidnapping and murder of Amber Hagerman, the namesake for the program who was 9 years old when she was killed.

The page to sign up for Amber Alerts on facebook is located here.

Amber Alerts have helped find 525 missing children since 1996.