Article

Entrepreneur creates controversy with 'Amber Alert' kiosks

A new kiosk's goal is to help find lost children, but some say the concept is misguided and confusing.

December 7, 2009 by

Retired inventor and Amber Alert Systems founder Wayne Merry has developed a unique technology he calls "Amber Alert" kiosks, but the idea has garnered some less-than-positive buzz, thanks to its name.

The devices are designed for placement in public areas such as beaches and amusement parks and issue emergency alerts when a child is lost. Merry monetizes the kiosks by selling advertising space to sponsors and by offering coupon and promotional applications for participating retailers, such as those at the deploying venue. So far, four of the kiosks are deployed, all at Daytona Beach, Fla.'s Volusia Mall.

The information on the Amber Alert kiosks, however, is not the same as the Amber Alerts issued by state governments in conjunction with the Department of Justice's Amber Alert program.

Merry says shoppers at Daytona Beach's Volusia Mall have responded well to the touchscreen Amber Alert kiosks.

Merry's alerts are specific to the deploying venue and do not necessarily indicate a child abduction, as the government-issued Amber Alerts do. Merry says he chose to issue independent alerts for lost children because there are strict requirements a scenario must meet to qualify for an Amber Alert, such as the stipulation that there must be evidence of an abduction.

"I started to study children getting lost, and 2,000 each day get lost in America," Merry said. "I also found that 48 percent get lost in a mall or a shopping environment, and then we also have down around 28 to 29 percent getting lost at some type of amusement park. The one thing that amazes me is when I saw the stipulations that you had to go through to post an Amber Alert, I thought, 'God forbid that I had a missing child and you came and told me that.'"

The criteria for issuing an Amber Alert vary by state, but in Florida the requirements are as follows:

1. The child must be under 18 years of age. 2. There must be a clear indication of an abduction. 3. The law enforcement agency's investigation must conclude that the child's life is in danger. 4. There must be a detailed description of child and/or abductor/vehicle to broadcast to the public. 5. The activation must be recommended by the law enforcement agency of jurisdiction.

Using the Amber Alert kiosk system, however, parents who have lost a child at Volusia Mall can have an alert posted no matter the circumstances — whether the child has been abducted or has simply wandered into another store for a few minutes. Even the lost child herself can talk to a mall official and have an alert posted in hopes of notifying her parent or gaurdian.

Merry's Amber Alerts clearly are very different from the U.S. government's Amber Alerts. But is he actually doing anything wrong by calling the lost-child warnings Amber Alerts? Although the DOJ has trademarked the Amber Alert logo, attorney Josh King says there's technically nothing illegal about using the term itself. King is vice president of business development and general counsel for Seattle-based Avvo.com, a consumer-focused online legal resource center.

"Calling it an Amber Alert, in and of itself, isn't a trademark issue," King said, "because that is a federal government program, and the federal government can't hold a trademark on the name."

But King does say the kiosk's name may be a little misguided.

"You see Amber Alert messages on the news, and it's a pretty big deal," he said. "I've always thought someone has been abducted, and they are trying to get as much help as they can on it. That's a far cry from someone whose kid has wandered over to the toy section in the mall. It's certainly misleading from that perspective. It may well be that these guys are trying to do good, and they're just overreaching with it."

Bob Hoever, associate director of special projects for the Missing Children division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, says there is good reason for the government's Amber Alert criteria and that misusing the name may be dangerous, as it might desensitize people to the real Amber Alerts.

"In reality, less than 1 percent of the missing child population actually rises to the level of an Amber Alert, so it really confuses the public," Hoever said. "We, as a society, need to protect the integrity of that program. When the public hears an Amber Alert, we want to make sure that the public realizes what an Amber Alert is. It's a child that's been abducted, and they're facing grave danger, and we need to act immediately on that."

How the Amber Alert kiosks work

1. When a child is lost, the parent or guardian alerts an employee or security personnel at the deploying venue and supplies as much pertinent information as possible and a photograph, if available.

2. The deployer logs into Amber Alert Systems' Web-based content-management program to upload the child's information in the form of a lost-child alert.

3. Sponsor advertisements running on the kiosks are interrupted to display the lost-child alert.

4. The information also is distributed via Amber Alert Systems' SMS text-alert service, which visitors to the deploying location can subscribe to and unsubscribe from at any time.

Evanston, Ill.-based patent attorney Paul Hletko says there are graver potential issues beyond the overuse of the term "Amber Alert," such as if a worried parent were to use the system thinking an actual government-issued Amber Alert had gone out.

"That could actually have some adverse consequences if in fact my kid, instead of just being a little attention deprived and wandering away, actually had been taken, and no alert went out because I thought it already had," he said.

Hletko says the bottom line is that, while there may not be anything illegal about using the words Amber Alert, the kiosk's name simply creates too much potential for misunderstanding.

"If I was advising this entrepreneur, I would beg them to change the name," he said. "I don't know that they would ever lose a lawsuit. I don't know that they would ever get sued, but it just seems like they would be better served with a mark that did not have this confusion with it."

Although Merry says the Daytona Beach Police Department and the local PBS affiliate station subscribe to the kiosk's text-alert service, the local authorities' level of involvement in the process isn't clear. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which issues Amber Alerts in the state, declined to be interview for this article, but did provide a statement:

FDLE applauds any effort to safeguard children, and when a child goes missing, we encourage parents to immediately report the child missing to law enforcement.

An Amber Alert has strict criteria and is only issued in cases in which a child is believed to be abducted or endangered. The term is widely recognized by citizens as being used for such situations.

The Amber Alert program is a national name and has been adopted by other states. While Florida has no copyright restrictions in place, we believe the term 'Amber Alert' should only be used in conjunction with a state-issued alert in order to minimize potential confusion by the public.

Merry stands by his concept, however, and he even says he chose to use the term "Amber Alert" because it is so recognizable.

"No, it's not confusing. My goal is to tell people it's an emergency," he said. "I don't want people to think I am (the government), because I'm not them. We just want to find missing children, so I use the 'Amber Alert' because instantaneously, in the focus groups I conducted, people knew what it was and they liked it."

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Entrepreneur creates controversy with 'Amber Alert' kiosks

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