Do your children know how to use an ordinary landline telephone?

[TheTecknician]

I still have a landline but I rarely use it. I guess they're mainly for business use these days and public telephones seem to be on the way out. I've been thinking if your average youngster would know how to use a push button (or even a rotary) dial telephone in an emergency. Are they familiar with the 999 facility ? Do things like this get taught in school ? Mobile telecommunications are here to stay but the landlines, I hope, will always be an important back-up system.

It was 999 because with a rotary phone you can easily tell which hole to put your finger in to dial if the electricity's out. It's the second from the stop on an authentic old dial phone... like this one https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/GisAAOSwFmRj7Mfp/s-l1600.png

DS is 2, so obviously he can't do it now but I don't see any reason he would learn to. I can't imagine an emergency where he'd need to, because I don't know where he'd encounter one.

You say "an ordinary landline telephone" and "an important backup system" but I wouldn't consider them ordinary or important any more. I'm 33 and haven't ever needed one or had one since I left my parents' house at 18. I've never seen one in any house I've visited of people younger than 50.

You don’t base an emergency service function on this ‘well they should have known better’. You just recognise that people will dial 911, and 999, and 112 and route them all to the emergency services line.

Not doing so is based in dangerous arrogance.

Also, I don't know if I'd definitely know how to use a rotary phone. I've literally never seen one in my life outside TV or maybe a museum. You might as well ask if I know how to use a Spinning Jenny.

A few years ago, I watched a teenager being instructed by his dad on how to play a vinyl record on a turntable - the teenager had clearly never touched a record player before - that made me feel ancient, as in my childhood everyone over the age of about six could put a record on the 'music centre'.

I think vinyl is becoming fashionable again, so hopefully the upcoming teenage generation will be able to play records.

No. We don’t have one.

I am slightly funny about the fact that when we leave them home alone they need to rely on mobiles in an emergency rather than 999 on a landline but that’s just me really.

I cannot imagine anyone would need to use a rotary phone. Vanishingly unlikely to be the only means of contacting anyone.

I suspect most children and young people could figure out how to press 999 on a landline if required. It’s more straightforward than dialling on a mobile. But they may well not have a landline as an option anyway.

Mine have very rarely even see a landline, and I don't think they have ever had a reason to use one. They obviously know 999 and dialing it on a Landline isn't that different to dialing it on the keypad of a smartphone, so they probably could if they needed to.

Not sure where they would find a landline in an emergency though, as we don't own one. If for whatever reason they couldn't use my or dh's mobile, I guess they might go to a neighbours and ask to use the phone, but then neighbour would probably just call the ambulance (or whatever).

Interesting that the universal symbol for a phone, based on the handset of a dial phone, will to future generations bear little resemblance to what it means. A bit like a red and white striped barber's pole representing blood-letting.

Mine can use a landline.Two DC have life threatening allergies and we have a close family member with epilepsy so we've ensured they are familiar with dialling 999.
We don't get reliable mobile phone coverage at home so we use the landline quite often.

A lot of children know 911 specifically because they watch American TV/films but there are lots of different emergency numbers used all over the world. Should all of those automatically redirect to the correct number just in case?
It's helpful that mobile phone providers have chosen to redirect calls but its odd to suggest they are arrogant or nationalistic if they don't.
It's sensible for people to know what to do in an emergency. It's a vital life skill for parents to teach their children.

The sentiment was ‘well foreigners should know the right number if they come here’ and ‘parents should teach their children’.

Which is smug and arrogant. Do the people whose parents didn’t teach them and relied on what they learned on film and tv just deserve to not get through because they used the wrong 3 digits?

Meanwhile, it is abundantly obvious that significant numbers of people are aware of 911 as an emergency number. It doesn’t matter if there are other uncommon numbers etc - much of the world knows 911 is an emergency services number, regardless what their system actually uses. It’s very easy to just redirect that to 999. In fact, it’s pretty easy to identify the common international numbers and divert them. The only obvious issue is New Zealand uses 111 and the NHS decided to use that as a non-emergency number.

A basic principle of good user centred design is to know your users and design for what they know and how they think. Especially when it actually could be life or death - and people may be panicking, so they are likely to dial the number that comes to mind most quickly. Being all ‘well British people use 999’ about that is a shitty attitude.

The main point being: it’s an emergency call not a British citizenship test. You make sure the numbers people are likely to use get through to the emergency services.

You can also run campaigns to educate people about what to do in an emergency (around dial 999) and encourage parents to teach their kids.

But the point at which someone is making an emergency services call is not a moment for correcting misunderstandings.

Our family's rotary phone was a bit of a novelty back in the 90s!

We ditched the landline about 5 years ago as no-one called it except spammers and MIL (she's on WhatsApp these days)

It wouldn't be vanishingly unlikely in my house! My husband has epilepsy and there have been many times when I've had to call an ambulance in the night, and I can remember two occasions when we had power cuts and so the cordless phones on the landline didn't work. The phones in my hall and living room are rotary dial so they are used very regularly.

I think you're getting your knickers in a twist here!
You've taken me saying that parents need to teach their kids an important life skill and inferred that I want people to die from ignorance!!! That's quite a reach!
BTW, my OH is a 'foreigner'. I have checked though and he seems to know the right number to dial in an emergency so it's all good. 😜

999 is the same on a mobile so they should surely know about it?

The video of the teenagers is quite sweet. Every time they picked the handset up, I was willing them not to put it down again!

I taught my kids at a young age about dialling 999 in case of emergency. This is why we kept our landlines. If they are home alone they know only to answer to my name or DH. They know how to dial our numbers, don't think they have been shown how to dial a number that's not pre saved. We never used it til recently when I 'popped out' for 10 mins to drop DS1 to training, while the dinner was cooking and drove into a massive tailback following a crash. I was able to call kids and reassure them and talk them through how to turn off the oven etc.

And a floppy disk being the save icon on computers.

Have you heard this one?😂

😂

I've got a floppy disk in my desk drawer at work, must bring jt home and see how the DCs react.

999 isnt the same on a mobile? I think anybody can see the numbers and understand how to press or dial them! I don't have a landline though, but think my kids could figure it out.

Can we reach the emergency services by text message, email, WhatsApp or any other digital means ? I honestly don't know.