Facebook Inc. is planning to use their massive, global reach to inform the public when a child has been abducted.

The social-networking service will now be sending out AMBER Alerts in areas where authorities are searching for a minor. Together with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the service will pinpoint the alerts and post in the timelines of users who are presently near the search area.

Alerts will now be active by default, rather than requiring users to sign up for notifications, according to Emily Vacher, Facebook’s trust and safety manager.

When local authorities determine that a case qualifies for an AMBER Alert, the National Center will issue the alert. This is then picked up by Facebook and distributed within the geographic location of the search. The area of the alert will be determined by the authorities.

The alerts will feature photos of the missing children as well as available information about the search. The posts will appear on both mobile and desktop applications, allowing users to share the posts and effortlessly link to the National Center’s most up-to-date information about the case.

Vacher is hopeful the new delivery system will help AMBER Alerts become even more effective.

“With more than 725 children recovered as a direct result of AMBER Alerts since the program launched in 1996, we know the system works. We hope our new delivery mechanism will help increase that number and reunite even more families.”

AMBER Alert Europe is now calling for a similar plan to be implemented overseas.

“Anyone is eager to help find a missing child. Especially when a child is missing in your region. This new Facebook feature will easily target those people nearby – a great addition to the AMBER Alert system. Therefore, we call for a similar plan in Europe,” said Frank Hoen, President of AMBER Alert Europe, in a statement.