The national Amber Alert system will now also be used in Dutch ATMs. This makes the Netherlands the first country in the world to show the alarms on ATMs as well. For the time being, the vending machines that support this are only placed at selected locations, reports ZDNet.
Three hundred vending machines from manufacturer In2Retail started showing pictures of missing children last week. The pictures are shown on screensavers. As mentioned before, not all ATMs support this. Those who do will be installed in selected locations. These include international airports and large shopping centres.
However, the intention is to provide the entire country with vending machines that support the Amber Alert. The system should therefore be extended to ATMs from other manufacturers.
The Amber Alert system was developed in the United States in the 1990s, but has since been used elsewhere. This applies in particular to North America and Europe. Depending on the structure of the national network, it allows authorities to show alarms of missing or kidnapped children on users’ phones, on TV or on advertising boards.
In the Netherlands this can now also be done via an ATM, with which Frank Hoen, founder and chairman of AMBER Alert Europe, says he is very happy. “We hope other countries will follow this great example.”
Different alarms
The ATMs can display not only the Amber Alert, but also other types of alarms. The Amber Alert is meant for when the life of a child is in immediate danger. The vending machines can also show a Missing Child Alert, which is used when the authorities are extremely concerned about the welfare of a missing child.
The vending machines also show a completely different campaign, in which citizens are called upon to become members of the Amber Alert system. By joining, they can also receive alarms on their phones.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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