Scrolling Facebook users have been enlisted to help local police find missing children, with the launch of a ‘News Feed’ alert system in Australia.

Victorian police used the social media platform for the first time to help find missing toddler Milena Malkic, last seen in Springvale.

Missing for nine days, the tot was taken to the Dandenong police station on Saturday by mum Nadia Malkic and step-father Joshua Coates. The couple were helping police with their inquiries early on Sunday morning.

The alerts include photographs and other details about the missing child, and Facebook users have the option to ‘share’ the notification with their friends.

On Friday night the child-abduction alert system issued an alert about the missing two-year-old.

The message Facebook users may have seen on their newsfeeds.

The alert includes an image of Milena wearing a pink dressing gown and white headphones, an image of the parents, as well as a photo of a car similar to the one the family may be driving – a blue 2002 Ford Falcon with number plate IHZ 4SU.

Source: Supplied/Victoria Police

Detective Acting Sergeant Tim Evans Evans said the Amber alert system “gets the word out” about possible child abductions in a new and “wide-reaching way”.

In a promotional video, Facebook trust and safety director Emily Vacher said when a child goes missing a community always wants to come together to help, but don’t always know how.

“One of the reasons we created the Amber Alert system on Facebook was because we were so inspired by the people who are already using Facebook for this purpose,” Ms Vacher said.

The social media platform said 20,000 children under the age of 18 are reported missing in Australia each year.

“All we did at Facebook is really help organise that effort to make sure the maximum number of people in the search area had access to that information,” Ms Vacher said.

The Amber Alerts program started in the United States in 1996, with Facebook announcing a partnership with the program in 2015.

The program was named after Amber Hagerman, a nine-year old who was murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996.

In 2014 an 11-year-old girl was safely recovered after a motel owner recognised her from an Amber alert that a friend had shared on Facebook.

The woman called the police and the child was found unscathed.

Australia is the 13^th country to use Amber Alerts following the US, Canada and the United Kingdom and some smaller counties including Malta, Luxembourg and Jamaica, according to News.com.au.

– with ABC