Starting Tuesday, Facebook could help save lives because the social media company will be assisting law enforcement by posting Amber Alerts for missing children.

Just like the Amber Alerts heard on the radio and on television, Facebook will post the vital information but will also include a picture of the child and the location of the possible abduction, NPR reports.

There are 185 million users in the U.S. that use Facebook, and the Amber Alerts will be customized for where each user lives. For example, New York residents will receive mostly New York alerts and Florida residents will see Florida alerts mostly.

Emily Vacher, Facebook's trust and safety manager helped get this program installed on Facebook.

"We were actually really inspired by people who already use Facebook for this purpose," Vacher told NPR. "We've noticed over the last couple of years that when kids go missing, people started posting about this on their Facebook pages to share information within their own communities. And we saw a lot of successes out of this. Kids have actually been brought home because of the information people shared on Facebook."

Amber Alerts are relatively new, having been created in the late '90s to help get missing children home. Since they were created, 728 children have been found safely, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. As Facebook has been successful in getting children reunited with their parents in the past, it makes sense to use this program.

"Amber Alerts are very rare occurrences," Vacher said. "So when you see one of these on Facebook, take a couple of minutes to read the alert, to share the information with your friends and family, and just pay attention to your surroundings, because a tip that you may find may actually result in reuniting a child with their family."

What do you think of Facebook posting Amber Alerts? Is this a good idea?

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