For Parents and Guardians

AmberAlert.com presents articles designed to keep your children safe and keep parents aware of issues related to their children. These articles are designed to prepare parents and guardians, hopefully to help prevent the worst from happening.

About AMBER Alert and the Amber Alert Portal

AMBER stands for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response". The AMBER Alert was created in 1993 as a powerful legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was kidnapped, raped, and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas.

Missing child hoax - Ashley Flores

You may have read about the "missing" teenager, Ashley Flores. This false email has spread throughout numerous message boards, blogs and emails accompanied with a photo of the supposed missing teenager. This email exemplifies how not to report a missing child and what information you can expect from legitimate and credible resources.

If your child is missing

Act immediately! If you are at home, search your house and any hiding places, such as laundry piles and closets. Children have ways of getting into places that adults wouldn't think of.

The potential price of a text message: a child's life

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.

Some tasks parents can take to help prevent their child from being abducted.

Seatbelts in the car. Helmets on the bicycle. Bug repellant in the great outdoors. Like most situations involving a child, taking steps to help prevent harm is the best thing you can do.

In light of the recent toy recalls, what are some other sources of lead paint that parents should be aware of?

It was big news last week when toy giant Mattel recalled 83 types of toys — 967,000 items on the shelves — because of their paint containing excessive amounts of lead. This is in addition to the June recall by RC2 Corporation of 1.5 million wooden railroad toys and parts due to the same problem.

The difference between a missing child and an AMBER-Alert qualified abduction.

It's understandably easy that an AMBER Alert's criteria be slightly confusing given that AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. However, the AMBER Alert is not a system designed for simply missing children. The AMBER Alert system was designed specifically for abducted children.

Explaining the sex offender registration system

Upon visiting the U.S. government's AMBER Alert website, the first thing you'll see is two links. The first of which points to the National Sex Offender Public Registry dedicated to Dru Sjodin, a college student who was kidnapped and murdered by a registered tier III sex offender in 2003. the registry was set up in 2006 after legislation dubbed "Dru's Law" was passed.