<------- confused non American
1. In 1996, a kid named Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered. The country gasped of horror.
2. The same year, the Amber Alert was introduced. It's a broadcasting system to alert folks that a kid has been abducted. Everyone is asked to call in with pertinent info if they see the kid or the abductor.
3. Present day: Amber Alerts are largely ignored. (Reasons vary. My opinion: we're desensitized to violence, there have been many false reports, and few of us care that someone else's kid was swiped.)
4. Recently, phone companies decided to work with law enforcement agencies to broadcast Amber Alerts directly to mobiles. Push marketing, if you will. Many mobile owners are angry.
Note: At this point, you may be thinking, "Wait a second. People in the U.S. get lathered up when a single kid goes missing, but are cool with blowing hundreds of innocent kids into countless pieces in other countries?!"
The answer is yes. The U.S. is pretty awesome that way.