The Potential Price of a Text Message: A Child’s Life

When it comes to the abduction of a child, minutes count. AMBER Alerts are most commonly broadcast over the Emergency Broadcast System through the radio and on your television. Since most abductors probably aren’t going to be found in your house, the TV broadcast might not help.

Nowadays, however, with satellite radios, iPods and CDs, how many of us actually listen to the radio in the car?

And, how would either of those alerting venues help if we aren’t tuned into something at the time?

The greatest answer to this problem for the time being is the cell phone. Signing up to receive AMBER Alerts as text messages on your cell phone makes it possible for you to be notified and on the lookout immediately, no matter where you are. At the mall? Dining out? Getting gas?

Most abducted children that are found dead were murdered within the first three hours of their abduction. Time is of the essence, and getting as many people alerted as possible in the shortest amount of time is key.

The Wireless AMBER Alerts Initiative is a voluntary partnership between the wireless industry, law-enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), to distribute AMBER Alerts to wireless subscribers who opt-in to receive the messages and are able to receive text messages on their wireless devices.

No, your phone is not going to blow up with text messages once you opt-in for this alerting service. Depending on which site you use to sign up, you will either receive alerts for certain zip codes or for entire states. Plus, there are very few AMBER Alerts per state each year.

Opting-in using The AMBER Alert Portal lets you choose as many of the participating states as you’d like, including Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Rhode Island, Washington and Oregon, with more additions to come.

The Wireless AMBER Alerts System asks that you designate zip codes for which you’d like AMBER Alerts, letting you choose up to five. However, since most alerts are issued state-wide, you may receive an alert outside of your chosen zip code but within your state. This is important, however, as it’s likely that we don’t limit our daily travels to five zip codes.

And, no, the service isn’t going to run up your cell phone bill. Many of the large cellular providers, including ALLTEL Mobile, Cingular Wireless, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and more, have a partnership with www.wirelessamberalerts.com so that there is no fee for the text messages coming from their site.

Even if you aren’t a subscriber to one of the participating cell companies, or choose to opt-in with www.amberalert.com — which bypasses law enforcement, saving up to an hour’s delay— the cost of a text message is so insignificant that it shouldn’t be an excuse against participation. Text messages range from 10 to 20 cents depending on the carrier.

Even with several updates being issued, you’ll be looking at less than $1.00 as the maximum cost to participate in the safe retrieval of an abducted child. You can probably find $.20 cents laying around on the floor somewhere to reimburse you.

Why not take a moment right now to opt-in? Visit one of the aforementioned sites or your state’s specific AMBER Alert website to sign up for the service. If you don’t have a cell phone, or one that receives text messages, some sites also provide AMBER Alerts to your email, pager or fax machine.