The UAE Ministry of Interior (MoI) teamed up with Facebook to launch the NiDAA Smart Alert system; a first-of-its-kind in the region and the Middle East. The system falls in line with its commitment to social responsibility and to reinforce the ministry’s efforts to achieve safety and security. 

The first phase of the launch, officially rolled out on Sunday, includes activation of the NiDAA Smart Alert, which aims at finding children officially declared missing, in a bid to reinforce child protection efforts. The ministry plans to further develop and upgrade this feature to include other smart notifications in different areas, as part of a smart system that uses emerging advanced technologies. 

The partnership allows Facebook users to be notified of missing children on top of their News Feeds. After receiving notification from the Child Protection Center about a child gone missing in a specific area, the Ministry of Interior will issue an alert to users on Facebook who are in the area of where the child went missing, with the necessary information that the public would need to be able to help find this child.

The MoI’s Child Protection Center has worked diligently with Facebook to develop this Alert System in the UAE, to support efforts to find abducted and missing kids. Upon receiving notification from Police GHQs in a specific area where a child has gone missing, the Child Protection Center sends out a message through the NiDAA feature, which contains a photo of the missing child, a description, the location of the abduction, and any other pertinent, available information that will assist the public in locating the child. distribution of information to the people in the area of the missing child. People will also be able the message with their Facebook community, in hopes of extending the reach even further. The message will be removed as soon as the child is located and found.