If you live in Southern California, you might have experienced an untimely text message or call in the middle of last night, just as you’ve gotten to sleep. You’ll have cursed the person who disturbed your peaceful slumber and swore to take their head off if it wasn’t important. But what if the text messages you received was a matter of saving someone’s life? Would you still be pissed? Ignore the message or do the right thing and take action?

On Sunday night, a gruesome crime occurred in San Diego. Christina Anderson’s remains, along with a dead dog, and an unidentified child, were found in the rubble of a burnt house. The residence has been identified as belonging to one James Lee DiMaggio who Anderson said to have shared a platonic relationship with and is a close friend of Brett Anderson, Christina’s husband and the father of the two missing children.

An Amber Alert was immediately sent out for Hannah Anderson, 16, and Ethan Anderson, 8, though some are speculating that the remains of the child found in DiMaggio’s home belonged to Ethan.

This is the first time California used the Wireless Emergency Alert program, a public-private partnership between phone carriers and government agencies to create a modern-day mobile emergency alert system, to issue a state-wide Amber Alert.

The Amber Alert informed people of the missing children and asked them to be on the lookout for a blue Nissan Versa with California license plates. DiMaggio is believed to be in possession of both children and is believed to be headed to either Canada or Mexico,

Despite all of its good intentions, the problem with this alert was no one knew they were enrolled in this program, and so when their phone blared off in the middle of the night, some many people were angry, some were confused, and some were terrified. People did not know what to do with the Amber Alert, furthermore, they did not know why they received it.

There’s nothing wrong with the text-based Amber Alert, but there are also some downside to it. On Twitter, a number of people complained that they received the alert while they were driving. Because of the blaring alert, some stated that it was a big distraction, one that was potentially serious enough to cause a road accident. Some expressed fear of the alert while others were more callous about it, stating that the Amber Alert interrupted them while they were watching porn, listening to music, or playing on their phone.

Some of these seem like valid complaints, but seriously, though the alert may have come at the worst time possible, the seriousness of the issue trumps whatever the hell people were doing.

Disappointingly, a number of people on Twitter were even asking if there was a way to opt out of the service, and this indifference begs the question – don’t people want to help in some way or another? There were of course many people who were quick to take action and send out a message to people they know, either via SMS or through Twitter. At least some people still cared enough to help people out.

The problem for a lot of people though, aside from the screeching alarm that comes with the Amber Alert text, is that why was this case so special when there are so many children who go missing in US each day? Who gets to choose which cases get priority and worthy of text-based Amber Alerts? Another problem is, if these text-based Amber Alerts are received by almost everyone, what if the perpetrator receives this, panics and loses control, and harms the victim? Would these alerts caused more harm than good then?

It’s great that the government is using the mobile platform to help find missing children, but if they do this for every missing kid, the danger is that people could soon become seriously annoyed by it.

Still, though it’s irritating, people should refrain from saying how irritating it was to get the alert – don’t forget that children’s lives are at stake here. Even if you don’t care about them, it might be better to just keep your opinions to yourself. The missing children have families looking for them and your whining and griping isn’t helping them in any way.