Am I being paranoid or is the fact the government have just set up an emergency alert system...

[BeaAggressiv]

Really freaky?!

Do they expect it to be needed? Why now, is it because of Putin?

I'm not usually alarmist but this has freaked me out.

A warning alert to your phone with a siren?!

The government website says it can be disabled. What type of phone do you have?

Op I'm with you in that it was new news to me today.

What happens when every car on a motorway gets an alert and causes distractions from driving??!

😂this made me laugh.

I wonder if they'll be parties on 23/4/23 for everyone to celebrate. Like a NYE countdown.

Let's hope some dope doesn't forget to add THIS IS A TEST to the message.

OP I was with you when I saw the article, then read on that it's delayed. It's a British government project, why wouldn't it be.

It cannot be disabled, only Alerts (ie notifications) can. Try it!

I just came on here to laugh at this and realised it was me that started the thread when I went to post and it changed my username to OP 😂😂😂😂

I have an i-phone and can toggle them on or off. They're at the bottom of the 'notifications' menu under 'extreme' and 'severe' alerts.

🤣🤣🤣

I'm currently I the U.S and they have it. An alert came up on my phone last Thursday when I was near Dallas as a Tornado came through.
Good idea and not concerned

I am surprised we haven't had it sooner but if the BBC are to be believed, there are actually only 19 other countries that have it so we're hardly outliers.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64999417

They've had this for decades in the Netherlands, originally with a series of sirens that are audible everywhere in the country and now also with a phone alert. They test the system at noon on the first Monday of every month so if anyone wanted to invade, that would be the perfect moment.

Personally I like it, living a metre below sea level as I do. But it's also helpful in less drastic situations, like when a local factory went up in flames one night and they were able to target the phones of those living nearby to ensure they took alternate roads & bikepaths or closed the windows of their homes.

I guess people will receive the ping on their phone and deal with it much the same way as receiving any other sort of notification while driving.

"I agree. Installing an app on my phone that cannot be disabled is."

There will be other apps pre-installed on your phone that you can't disable too I think.

Don't buy the phone if you don't want the features it offers.

i didn't miss the point at all. But you do you.

We could have outdoor civil defence sirens like France (which always scare the bejesus out of me when I visit as I forget they are tested every month).

But mobile phone alerts seem a more 21st century way.

"Oh no, the nasty government want to be able to tell us about an impending disaster as soon as they possibly can so that we have a better shot at being prepared and avoiding fatalities, won't somebody think of the children?!"

This.

Part of my job is emergency planning. I've spent decades preparing for serious events that will almost certainly never happen and this is just part of it.

There's loads of stuff going on behind the scenes and what Putin gets up to doesn't really influence it as we have many other possible scenarios to work with.

Yes, it's the same on my Samsung. You cannot disable the App

My elderly mum will panic about this and I would like to turn it off on her phone. It is a disgrace if we cannot do so, not everyone’s mental health can cope with these alerts. She’s 80, she isn’t going to looking for a missing child, and there is naff all she can do about most situations so a call from me in a way she understands is better than the governornment taking control of her phone without her consent.

What phone does she have?

It's nothing to worry about. The government realised with covid that we needed one. So they are now introducing one.

As for the 80 year old can't you just tell her that the alert will be coming on 23rd and tell her what it is and not worry? It's only like a fire alarm test.

Testing is a good idea

Picking the day of the London Marathon (where thousands of runners nearly crash the mobile network in areas the capital because of the huge spike in usage) seems a little silly. Unless of course they've deliberately chosen that day to make a stress test maximally stressed

@PlateBilledDuckyPerson an iPhone.

@lieselotte in theory, but she can’t work her phone at the best of times. She has a lot of anxiety around technology that we find simple to use.

Why would they alert us in the case of a nuclear attack, what difference would it make?