Amber Alerts on phones

The Amber Alert system is expanding so that cellphone users who can receive text messages can "opt in" to the free service and be alerted about missing and kidnapped children. "Cingular Wireless, Nextel Communications, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless are among the nine cellphone carriers that will participate in the program, along with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and wireless industry group CTIA," CNET reports. The participating companies represent 183 million cellphone customers. "Amber Alerts were named for Amber Hagerman, a Texas girl who was kidnapped and murdered in the late 1990s," CNET adds.