Talk:Amber alert

message: Many phone carriers are enabling amber alerts by default.
Is that legal?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.55.54.40 (talk) 19:38, 6 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Legality and Can Spam Act

message: The Amber Alert was not named for Amber Rene Hagerman!  It was in use long before she was killed.  It was used in Season 4, Episode 3 of the sitcom 'The Andy Griffith Show,' 'Ernest T. Bass Joins the Army' as 'Amber Alert 2' by character Barney Fife played by actor Don Knotts on 14 November 1963.
Brian Brown, Ph.D.
Abilicom (talk) 03:34, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: That is a reference to something different. They weren't searching for a child, they were on watch for a notorious rock thrower out for revenge. But they're a small town, they can't quite manage a red alert so they have a yellow (amber) alert. I guess red would be something so bad they both had to stay awake. Attack.Iguana (talk) 10:43, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Missing sections

message: A photo of an electronic traffic-condition sign displaying an AMBER alert would give the reader a more immediate understanding of what a typical alert consists of and how large a scope the alert actually has. Mrtea (talk) 06:19, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you, Author782! Mrtea (talk) 19:45, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

text: You're welcome.  Author782 09:01, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The image of questionable copyright status, Image:Amber13.JPG, was removed by OrphanBot on  19-FEB-2006. Kevyn 06:44, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

text: The image has been deleted as a copyright violation. Kevyn 15:16, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Requested image

message: I removed this html comment from the article: "When did the national system come online? What is the history of Canada's versions? Did Al Gore have something to do with proposing the U.S. system? (He was mentioned in a previous version of the article, but it was not clear whether the info was accurate)." Mrtea (talk) 19:51, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I had put those questions in there to accompany the sectstub that was applicable to the History section. Someone squeezed in a new section above the stub and comments last month. I believe the history section is still not much of a history, so I am restoring the stub and will point to the talk page. — mjb 23:28, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sure thing. Like you pointed out in your edit summary, the comments and stub template got moved around so I was just confused as to why they were there. Mrtea (talk) 00:38, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Questions (removed from article)

message: I removed this link from the see also.  The program is used to help find children of a variety of colors and both genders in my area and I am sorry if it is only used to find white females in the area of whoever added it but it is not related to this article. - Kuzain 16:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Can you back up this claim with some facts?  If that link is to be there, it needs to be accompanied with properly sourced justification.  In my case, the last two Amber Alerts that I've seen were for hispanics.  --Bletch 13:34, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

text: As the article documents, the Amber Alert system was created in response to – and was promoted by – well-publicized cases of Missing White Girl Syndrome (such as Amber), so saying it "has nothing to do with" it, is simply incorrect. -Jason A. Quest (talk) 11:51, 23 March 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Missing White Woman Syndrome

message: This article as it was on 3-01-06 is emblematic of what is wrong with Wikipedia. It was an advertisement rather than an impartial encyclopedia-like article. Amber alerts, who issues them, how they are used, how much funding goes to them, and what happens to the funding, are controversial subjects. Promotional writings on Amber alerts deserve a skeptical eye. 
There are so many people profiting from child protection scams, particularly the government sponsored ones, that nowadays in America, almost any program or agency claiming to help children should be suspect. Nobody should simply assume these programs or agencies are blossoming from the goodness of someone's heart. — Nehmo 15:06 1 March 2006 (UTC)
:Sign your post with four tildes (~~~~) next time (I added an attribution of your comment for you this time).
:You raise some excellent points, but you also demonstrated some of the other shortcomings of Wikipedia. For one, your attempts to correct the situation consisted of turning the article into a very informally phrased message board post; your contributions belie your frustration, as they sound more like sour grapes than anything academic. Also, the article was actually far more neutral before someone started messing with it on February 19. You should always check the recent history on an article that attracts scam artists because they tend to sneak things in, and they make their last change be a minor edit that causes people checking watchlists to overlook the more drastic changes made on the same day. That's pretty much what happened here (I'm not calling anyone a scammer, I'm just saying there were some less-than-ideal edits that snuck in). For now, I have reverted it to the last 'good' version. This also includes reverting the 'Successful Examples' section that was added by Zappa.jake; in hindsight, I think a discussion of examples should include a mention that unsuccessful examples are rarely publicized, and the likelihood that the 'success' of the system is hard to measure, since many cases are never proven to be abductions. So please review the current article and see what you think is needed, and let's discuss its shortcomings here (see below). — mjb 19:44, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Amber Article on 3-01-06 is complete junk

message: Colorado just passed legislation 'to extend Amber Alerts to missing senior citizens'. It's not 100% clear from the media reports whether this is going to be a separate system or is just a change to the state's existing AMBER Alert criteria. It will apply to 'persons 60 years of age or older with a "verified impaired mental condition" and "whose disappearance poses a credible threat to the safety and health of the person."' I'm not going to try to work it into the article until I know more about it.—mjb 01:16, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Senior alerts

message: Since many web sites and services relating to missing kids and AMBER Alert are contentious—it is argued above that they are scams, and previous links have been unceremoniously deleted—I intend to delete any non-authoritative resource links. Official sources and press articles about AMBER Alert are OK, but portals and "keeping your kids safe" sites are not. I encourage others to help enforce this, if they agree.—mjb 19:25, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with you. I've reverted that safekids site in the past. A lot of these AMBER Alert "informational" sites have obvious hidden agendas. Mrtea (talk) 01:31, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: 24.225.89.38 was back at it again tonight, removing the section on the web-based amber alert system ,  and changing two of the links to authoritative sites to link to scammer sites. I have reverted all changes. Kevyn 05:37, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: External link policy

message: Why did they choose an indirect naming like AMBER? Why didn't they go for something more clear like "missing child alert"? Wouldn't that be more helpful?--Sonjaaa 03:41, 23 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Apparently honoring Amber Hagerman's memory is more important than recognition. But then again, it's fairly widely known that an AMBER alert is. --DanielCD 16:59, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Naming?

message: An anonymous user, with this edit, replaced the paragraph describing who came up with the idea of the Amber Alert with an entirely different story.  Can people supporting either version provide any credible an verifiable sources backing up their version? TSP 22:41, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That anonymous edit should not be allowed to stand, but since the book it references does exist, we can say something about how the origin of the AMBER Alert system is debated and the fact that this book exists and that his pastor claims to have had the idea first; some say… others say… etc. I hate weasel words, but sometimes there's no avoiding them.—mjb 03:13, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Amber Alert History - Sources? 

message: I just added a link to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, because I got some of my International Influence information from that site.  I don’t know for sure, but I hope that that site does not fall into the “spam” category – if it does, that was not my intent.  According to the website, it is a private non-profit organization, but it does have corporate sponsors... Jaksmata 00:25, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: NCMEC is entirely appropriate for the context of this article. Kevyn 04:25, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  NCMEC 

message: I think that the section on England's "Child Rescue Alert" system probably merits being split off into its own article, since the program is so separate from the AMBER Alert system in the U.S. and Canada. A new section for "Child alert systems in other countries" with a link to the new article would probably be sufficient. Does anyone object to this? Kevyn 08:14, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Split off Child Rescue Alert into separate article? 

message: Just announced today.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap//ap_on_hi_te/myspace_amber_alerts
Probably should go in the article somewhere.
-PK9 20:27, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  MySpace to distribute AMBER Alerts 

message: can someone who had an audio clip of an Amber Alert from North Texas please put it up here on Wikipedia. i mean that they have the EAS sounds on the EAS page but no audio links here. can someone put an audio link up here.
- User:boutitbenza_69_9 23:34, 19 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Amber Alert Sound 

message: I have several concerns with regard to this section:
# First of all, why isn't it at Child Rescue Alert or Child Rescue Alert System (I'm not sure which is the official name) already? It would seem to be significant enough to have its own article.
# The references to "England" grate horribly. Yes, all the forces mentioned in the article are English, but there is no "English" police or justice system. This BBC News article mentions that the system was at least trialled in North Wales as well. Actually, it mentions the Isle of Man too, which isn't even part of the United Kingdom, let alone England!
# Almost as an afterthought, the final line mentions that an alert issued in 2007 was the first for a long period. The CRA system is nothing like AMBER Alert in terms of frequency of use.
# Related to the above, the CRA scheme also has nothing like the public profile of AMBER Alert. There's a current news story in this country about a missing nine-year-old girl. I have read a fair bit about this story, and have not seen one mention of the CRA, even in a general, "we ought to have that in West Yorkshire" way. Frankly, I doubt many of my British compatriots have ever even heard of CRA.
Loganberry (Talk) 03:47, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  "England's Child Rescue Alert system" 

message: This article describes what the AMBER Alert system is, and how it operates.  The article doesn't mention so much as a single case, where somebody has been recovered safely as a result of this.  Does anybody have any information on whether or not it is effective, and how effective it is that can be added?  Thanks Guinness (talk) 09:46, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Success rate 

message: Just a brief explanation of what I did to the history section.
:a) I removed POV, so that the article would more neutrally reflect the events that occured.  
:b) I removed excessive detail.  This article should not be relating all the details of Amber Hagerman's disappearance and the search for her.  Those details belong in the article on Amber Hagerman.  Only what is directly relevant to the creation of the AMBER Alert belongs in the article on the AMBER alert.
:c) The history section contained uncited quotations.  That is a big no-no on Wikipedia.  Quotations should be attributed to reliable sources, which could include newspaper and magazines.  It does not include self-published websites.
:d) I rewrote the section so that it had a proper encyclopedic tone.  
:e) I also wikified the article, so that it now has wikilinks to let people get more information about different people or concepts mentioned. 
Karanacs (talk) 13:44, 8 August 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Txbad1, I am sure that you have the best interests of the article in mind.  However, please note that Wikipedia is not your personal website and articles are expected to abide by certain policies and guidelines.  Among these are No original research (facts must be verifiable by reliable sources, not people's memories), neutral point of view (meaing we should present facts and let others draw conclusions) and the wikipedia manual of style, which helps us to determine how articles should be written and formatted.  Please also note that those with conflicts of interest should be especially careful in their editing practices.  This article is on the Amber Alert, NOT Amber Hagerman, and does not need the amount of detail that is here on Amber's tragic kidnapping and murder.  Can you please explain to me what had been removed from the first paragraph of "your" version which upset you?  Perhaps we can discuss paragraph by paragraph. Karanacs (talk) 18:08, 8 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: History Section changes

message: http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1997_1422693
child found - not abducted - http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=1997_1423089
Karanacs (talk) 18:55, 8 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: first use of Amber alert

message: FYI: The first place I ever heard the term "Amber Alert" was when I lived in Georgia.  I've never heard "Levi's Call" before in my life.  MrBook (talk) 14:08, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Levi's Call

message: I am wondering how much detail the Dutch AMBER Alert should be given, as long as it has not been used yet, thank god there not been any need to do so yet, it does not deserve its own article. It is primarily internet (and mobile phone) based, it's a private & police-undertaking, no legislature involved. The Missing Persons department of the (national) police is the only "user" and uses no abduction condition. ThW5 (talk) 17:10, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Amber Alert Nederland 

message: The article needs to add a section, I think, discussing controversy over the fact that the Amber Alert often (if not always) utilizes the local EAS/EAN system (at least this is the case here in North America). Which means the same alert tones intended to notify viewers of nuclear attack warnings, tsunamis, tornadoes, terrorist attack, etc. are also now heard for Amber Alerts. This is extremely dangerous and in fact I know of people who now tune out the EAS tones because either they think it's a test -- or it's "just" an Amber alert. There's already mention of concerns over desensitizing viewers to the Amber Alerts, but I think something should be added regarding concerns over the potential to distract from warning that might affect a much wider range of the population. Surely someone in a reputable source has discussed this issue. 68.146.81.123 (talk) 17:14, 31 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Use of attack warning/disaster warning tones in US/Canada

message: All of the cited sources for Canada use "Amber Alert" instead of "AMBER Alert". I've changed the spelling in the Canada section to reflect this. Regards, Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 21:58, 27 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Canadian spelling 

message: a few years ago i made a comment about how the Amber Alert has it's own warning tone, well i found a link to it, in fact it's clearly a scary alert tone, but now maybe someone here can at least try to put it on the Amber alert or Emergency Alert System page.
http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/other/amberalert.wavBoutitbenza 69 9 (talk) 07:16, 10 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Amber Alert Sound Audio link found 

message: http://www.peasintheirpods.com/contact.shtml
External link addition.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zephyr46 (talk • contribs) 01:08, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rilya alert 

message: I added a sentence about West Virginia's new Skylar's Law, which made changes to that state's Amber Alert activation criteria. Marla the Mop (talk) 18:01, 31 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Skylar's Law edit 

message: On CP24, when an AMBER Alert is issued in the GTA or in Ontario, this AMBER Alert tone plays along with a voice that says "This is an AMBER Alert!"
Here's the link to the tone as heard on CP24 when an AMBER Alert gets issued:
http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/other/amberalert.wav  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.236.43.248 (talk) 01:51, 8 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  AMBER Alert on Canada News TV 

message: Amber alert is a specific American term for a specific missing child alert. The term does not appear to be used internationally, except perhaps in Europe. Therefore the article should be entitled Missing Child Alerts, or restricted to the American system.101.98.74.13 (talk) 02:41, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  International usage generally not Amber alerts 

message: The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:
* 
Participate in the deletion discussion at the . —Community Tech bot (talk) 23:36, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion 

message: This line appears in the Activation Criteria section with so source cited: "Many law enforcement agencies have not used #2 as a criterion, resulting in many parental abductions triggering an Amber Alert, where the child is not known or assumed to be at risk of serious injury or death."
There is no source cited for the assertions made here:
1. That many law enforcement agencies have not used #2 as a criterion
2. That this has resulted in many parental abductions triggering an alert
3. That the child is not known or assumed to be at risk by such abductions  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.191.3.46 (talk) 23:10, 14 December 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Possible original research in activation criteria section 

message: Proposals to have an amber alert system in the Philippines PengualaHeadphones (talk) 13:20, 9 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Senate Bill 2256 (Philippines)