An Amber Alert is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated in the United States and is now used in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Indian country, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and internationally in 31 countries. The name "AMBER" stands for "Americas Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response" and was created as a legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, TX, and then brutally murdered.

For an Amber Alert to be issued, police authorities need to meet four criteria simultaneously and with no exceptions:

• The missing person is a child under the age of 18.
• The police have reason to believe that the missing child has been abducted.
• The police believe that the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death.
• There is enough descriptive information about the victim and the abduction for law enforcement to issue an Amber Alert to assist in the recovery of the child.

Amber Alerts may be distributed via the Alert Ready emergency alert system, which disrupts programming on all radio, television stations, and television providers in the relevant region to display and play audio of Amber Alert information. In 2018, Alert Ready introduced alerts on supported mobile devices. When an alert is broadcast, a distinct sound is played, and a link to find more information is displayed onscreen.

The AMBER Alert system has been successful in recovering missing children. As of January 2023, 1,127 children were successfully recovered through the AMBER Alert system, and 131 children were rescued because of wireless emergency alerts.