To wonder about the government warning to our phones.

[TarasHarp55]

Does anyone know much about this emergency warning thing on our phones. Can't remember the exact day but in April they're going to test it out. Is it fear mongering again. I'm going to switch it off, anyone else.

Sorry about the badly worded title.

23rd April

www.gov.uk/alerts

They r just setting up a new system and the thing in April is a test to see if it's working. They do these phone alerts in other countries. That said, I do wonder if they know something we don't about a potential future emergency! 🤷

It's really nothing to worry about. It's been in development for a while, and we are way behind a lot of other countries who already have this in place. It will alert you to danger near to you, extreme weather, terrorist attacks, for example.

Why would you switch your phone off?

It's just a test, I don't see any issue?

Everyone seems so paranoid about it. Loads of other countries have them. I honestly don't see the big deal

They’ve been around for donkeys years in other countries and aren’t really the big issue that the conspiracy theorists are making out. There’s been quite a few threads on it.

I think it's pretty unlikely the government would have sufficient advanced notice of some threat they're not telling us about to organise a major test run. I don't think it's a bad thing - if there was a tsunami about to hit us, or nuclear attack, they would be a failure of a government of they didn't manage to tell people about it.

Thank you for the reminder.

Neither do I. I wonder what time it will be I have visions of people sitting in church and all the alarms on their phones going of.

We had an alert to our phone warning of severe rain whilst we were in Greece. Completely normal and nothing conspiratorial about it. If the government wanted to use the mobile network for nefarious means they would just ask the network provider.

I echo what @NBLarsen says. It's about safety for the country at the end of the day. I doubt we'll be alerted unless it's extremely necessary. Surely it's got to be a good thing.

I literally received one of these today. It was a warning because there was localised extreme weather causing flooding - but if you were outside it was warm and no wind, it hit without warning.
Everyone received it. Everyone knew to avoid areas of the city.

I'm not sure why it's causing so much panic in the UK?

Presumably OP meant she was going to switch the alerts off not her phone.

I have done the same.

I think it’s a good idea in principle - thing to be aware of that the phone won’t work afterwards until you’ve acknowledged the message ( have I understood that correctly )

Because if I was fast asleep I'd be frightened to death if my phone started shrieking out. I can't see what I'd want to be alerted about. I live on a hill so it won't be floods.

Also just because you don't have an issue doesn't mean others don't.

I have c-PTSD and fight hard against hyper vigilance. I switch alerts off because in this day and age I will hear about anything I need to know via other channels almost instantly so it helps removes that fear of it going off at any moment.

I don't see as it's anything to get so het up over. Why bother switching your phone off? It's just a test an an alarm. It won't harm you.

Other countries have these systems so why not the UK? We're a bit far behind the rest of the world if anything.

I don’t understand the purpose of the alert really. For things like terrorist attacks and nukes they would be pointless. For extreme weather, most people I know check the weather forecast. I think in this country if an alert was sent out it would just trigger hysteria and panic buying.

There are no doubt people in these other countries that also switch them off though.

We don't trust our government.

You can turn off the alrerts in settings on your phone. I've managed over 4 decades without them telling me it's going to rain, and I'm slightly perturbed that it will disable my phone until aknowledged, so mines off.

Terrorist attack, extreme weather, power cut, nuclear missile? You wouldn’t want any warning of these things?

Agree. What is the point?

Can you block the govt spamming you?

People who live in areas prone to flooding and/or extreme weather events might need this system. The UK does get hit by these now and then - flood plains of rivers, coastal areas, landslides etc.

In other countries warnings for events such as earthquakes or possible tsunamis might be necessary.