Ministry of Interior Teams Up with Facebook to Launch the NiDAA Smart Alert System
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.
Commenting on the achievement, Lieutenant General Saif Abdullah Al Shaafar Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, Secretary General of the Office of His Highness the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior said: This milestone partnership with Facebook marks a pioneering measure to reinforce the MoI’s efforts in its quest to achieve further security and safety for the community. It avails of emerging technologies and the prevalence of applications on social media in a practical way, to boost the efforts of law enforcement agencies, and will soon be expanded to include other smart alerts on social media and smart platforms.
He added: The UAE has established unprecedented global standards in respect to child protection and gave top priority to ensuring their rights and safety on its social policies’ agenda. The MoI is committed to adopting this approach and to developing and harnessing global experiences to support child protection across the country.
He also said: The launch of the first phase of the NiDAA Smart Alert System is part of purposeful strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing child protection using modern technology. We will govern the alert sending process by sorting and validating all notifications received from police GHQs at the countrywide level; and after taking the necessary action, we will generate the message in the form of an alert across Facebook in the area of where the child went missing.
Al Shaffar added Based on the agreement with Facebook, the Child Protection center will resort to specific and clear procedures and criteria for the alert, by validating the notification received from the relevant police departments and making sure it falls within its jurisdiction. It shall also assess if the case is worth engaging people in the search, which includes children younger than 18 years of age, who may be at risk as a result of leaving their families under different circumstances.
In conclusion, he noted that the Alert, which can be shared with friends and family, may be extended to a wider area or through the Facebook community by sending short messages to people residing in the search area. The alert will be cancelled once the missing child is found, he noted.
Emily Vacher, Director of Trust Safety on Facebook's Security team, lauded the launch of the NiDAA Smart Alert System. This invaluable system is the result of an evolving and growing partnership between our global platform and partners in the public sector; and aims to further our commitment to social responsibility and our valuable role in protecting community members, especially children. Vacher explained that this initiative, which mirrors the social network's AMBER Alert feature, is an important and advanced achievement for both parties, and furthers promotes the United Arab Emirates’ reputation and efforts in child protection.
Vacher expressed pride in this partnership, which provides the NiDAA Alert System to help children and their families; highlighting the initiative’s humanitarian aspect by providing assistance to families who lose their children for any reason. The initiative is an important addition to search efforts and avails of Facebook’s popularity and widespread reach. It harnesses modern technology to enhance protection of people everywhere, she continued.
Captain Hamad Khater, Head of Projects Division of the Office of Projects and Shared Services at the Ministry of Interior, said that working closely with the strategic partner Facebook to develop this appeal in the UAE in stages begins with the first call to enhance efforts to search for missing children. The Child Protection Center receives the communication from the Police General Command in the area in which the child was lost, to be circulated with an "appeal" in his photograph, the last clothes he wears and some qualities that may be used to inform the missing child. The child can be found, and the appeal can be extended to wider areas at the state level, for example.