Social media app TikTok has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to put Amber Alerts in-app.
DALLAS — Fifty years ago, Jim Walker’s teenage sister, Carla Walker, was kidnapped. She was then raped, tortured, and strangled to death.
“I miss not…. not having a life with her,” Jim told WFAA.
“Not doing life with her.”
Back then, in 1974, solving crime was more complicated. Technology wasn’t advanced, and Carla’s case went cold.
“Of course, DNA and the internet were science fiction,” Jim recalled.
But they’re not anymore. And in another, new effort to use technology to keep kids alive, social media app TikTok has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to put Amber Alerts in-app.
They just launched their pilot program for Texas users.
“They’re gonna help us get in front of that right audience,” John Bischoff Vice President Missing Children at NCMEC told WFAA over Zoom.
Bischoff told WFAA that effective immediately if there’s an amber alert activated near you, you’ll see a “card” in your TikTok “For You Page” as you’re scrolling through videos.
It will feature details about the missing child, an in-app button to call 911, and unlike the alert that appears only on your home screen, photos of the child, the suspect, and the vehicle if available.
“[Because] people may be on the app waiting at the doctor, waiting at the airport, maybe at a bus stop,” TikTok’s Head of T&S Risk and Response Operations Lili Nguyen told WFAA.
“This type of information is most helpful the more people can see it,” said Nguyen.
“I’m thankful we’ve got the technology now,” Jim added.
He said he’s not a TikTok guy himself but is a big fan of this program because he knows how modern-day technology can crack a case. Forty-five years after his sister was taken, new, advanced forensics finally helped convict Carla’s killer.
“I’m glad to say because technology advanced, everything came together,” Jim said.
He believes using the tools we have now, that he didn’t 50 years ago, just might bring a child home before it’s too late.
“Using TikTok and other similar platforms I believe we’ll save lives.”
TikTok says they plan to expand the program to other states eventually.