(File photo)
China's AMBER alert system has brought home 260 missing children within six months of its launch, which is more than 90 percent of the total missing underage population in the nation.
The system, launched on May 15 by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and Alibaba, has published 286 alerts about missing children across China. Of the 260 found, 18 were kidnapped and 152 left home deliberately. A total of 52 children were found dead.
The alert system, named "Tuanyuan," which translates to "reunion" in English, is operated by over 5,000 police officers across China. On Nov. 16, the system announced plans to partner with more social media platforms apart from Sina Weibo and online mapping service Amap to access information about missing children. Among the new platforms are Alipay, Tencent QQ and Didi Chuxing, Thepaper.cn reported.
New alerts will be immediately published on the Sina Weibo account of an online platform specifically created by the MPS to find missing children. At the same time, all users of the social media partner platforms will receive a notice.
For Amap users, those located close to the location where a child is reported missing receive notices first; those located within a 100-kilometer radius of the location receive notices one hour later. After three hours, the notice spreads as far as 500 kilometers.
