The Ontario Provincial Police has teamed up with Facebook as part of its Amber Alert program.

It will have the potential to reach half a billion Facebook users as it tries to find abducted children.

OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis says "In the first hours of a child abduction it's extremely critical that we get information out to the public fast and there's no time to waste."

The special Facebook page will broadcast the alerts whenever police believe a child has been abducted. It will include descriptive information that will help the public identify the missing child or abductor.

Jordan Banks, managing director of Facebook Canada, says "Residents of Ontario who 'like' the Ontario Amber Alert Facebook page will automatically receive notification in their news feed, which is our communication stream when a child goes missing."

By early afternoon, more than 4,000 users had clicked that they liked the page.

Amber Alerts are issued when a child under age 18 is abducted, police believe the child is in danger and police have a description of the child or the abductor or the vehicle.

Canada is the first country to have this type of partnership with the social networking site. New Brunswick and P.E.I. already have a similar system.

With files from The Canadian Press