After four days of searching for a 15-year-old girl from Novi Sad, with Serbia's „Find Me" system activated, she has been found alive and well on a train from Belgrade to Petrovaradin. Tip-offs from members of the public led to the location. The disappearance was reported on 29 April. On 2 May, around 20:40, the system was closed. And for the first time since „Find Me" was introduced, Serbia's equivalent of an Amber Alert worked well enough.

The „Find Me" system was introduced on the third anniversary of the „Ribnikar" school massacre. It was part of the reform package announced in 2023 - perhaps one of the few real successes of those changes. SMS messages, mobile apps, billboards, TV stations - all activated at once when a missing child is reported. The idea is simple. The number of eyes and ears on the ground multiplies geometrically.

But the Balkans know how to turn simple systems into complicated ones. In the first hours of „Find Me", Serbian public space was flooded with speculation. Who's to blame? Was there violence? Was she abducted? The focus shifted from the search to the rumours. That's a natural reaction, but in the context of an Amber Alert it's harmful. As Interior Minister Dačić put it - „the information from citizens was the key". The noise of speculation could have buried that very piece of information.

For the girl's family, four days of uncertainty is a trauma in itself. Before they learnt she was alive, every minute felt endless. The system can't solve that - but it can help the process end as fast as possible. This time - four days. Not ideal, but significantly faster than disappearances before 2023, when searches often dragged on for weeks.

Across the road, the questions Serbia now has to answer are older than the system. Why does a 15-year-old run away from home? Was there a family conflict? Was there a manipulator she was led by? Does the school system have a way to spot a crisis like this before it happens? The minister didn't answer those questions. The „Find Me" system finds children who run away, but it doesn't fix the reasons they run.

For Macedonia the lesson is pragmatic. We have no equivalent of „Find Me". When a child goes missing - the first hour is for the police, then for the family, then for friends. There are no system-level processes for mass mobilisation. There is only after-the-fact reporting. On stage - every interior minister says it will be introduced, but three years after the „Ribnikar" case, five years after several cases in Skopje and Kumanovo - there is still nothing. And until there is, we will read about them like the one in Novi Sad. And ask ourselves - how much longer will the Balkans be one step behind the trend?