Hacker News Reader

Comment by DrStalker | Hacker News Reader

Serious question: What are you supposed to do? Find the vehicle they describe? Run away from it? Ignore it and figure someone else will know what to do?

Can someone explain what this "Amber Alert" is because I have no idea and all the comments in this thread so far seem to assume everyone knows what is being discussed. Is it some sort of opt-out government alert system to help keep panic levels up between terrorist attacks?

View on HN

It is an alert system mostly used for child abduction emergenencies: "An AMBER Alert or a Child Abduction Emergency (SAME code: CAE) is a child abduction alert system. Originating in the United States in 1996, there are now similar systems in a number of other countries." (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMBER_Alert)

If you spot the car, call the police. That's all.

The strange thing is that the Amber Alert was for Boulevard, CA which is over 500 miles away.

It went statewide, that's why you got it.

They were abducted down there 3 days ago. It reached SF today presumably because they've been traveling possibly to Canada.

"Amber alert" itself is mostly just a PSA that a child has goe missing. What people are discussing is that most smartphones have a way to have emergency messages (such as this) broadcasted and displayed prominently. In this case, all its asking you to do is Keep an eye out for the vehicle. Report if found.

I have a nexus 4, and I can disable none, some or all of alerts. They're useful though. Among amber alerts, it can warn you about terrorist attacks, earthquakes/tsunamis/other natural disaster, etc.

> it can warn you about [...]

You make it sound like an automated solution! ;-)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com