Government Alert caused more angst for domestic violence sufferer’s

[PurpleDisco]

Just heard from a friend who volunteers for a DA shelter that they’ve been inundated with calls today due to the Gov alert yesterday. The main issue being that secret phones that are always on silent mode were suddenly screeching loudly with a siren sound. The emergency siren automatically bypasses silent mode it seems. These secret phones are literally a lifeline for abused women / people and this has put their lives (and possibly children’s) in even more danger than they already were. Can you imagine the abuse and turmoil some women would have gone through last night once these phones were discovered by their abusive partners? Did the Government not think of this increased risk at all?

That's unfortunate, but after the last test alarm, it was made clear that those in DV situations with a secret phone should keep it switched off, or use a phone that isn't compatible with the alarm e.g. dumb phones or those that don't use 4G or 5G.

Also, I'm sure it said last time that there's a way to turn the alerts off on your phone if you need to.

Of course the government would have considered this, but the benefits will outweigh the negatives and as above there are ways around this.

It is an alert system for necessary health and safety information for the entire country. Sadly, it needs to have the ability to go to every phone and bypass silent modes or else half the population could miss vital information. I really don't see how it could be set up any other way and still work.
The problem is the violent arseholes, and the system failing the women from getting the help to leave.

Yes I agree with you, this is very scary and sad and I hope those poor women and children are ok. I hope the government have a more informed perspective once they pull this again.

When they did the test alarm last year (and the year before) it was heavily publicized that the emergency alert on phones can be switched off in settings.
Both the government and phone companies have publicized this option.
I'm not sure what else they can do.

This has been done to death. Switch it off.

Too late now but this was on an old thread..

https://www.womensaid.org.uk/uk-emergency-alerts/

It was heavily publicised during the practice alerts that you could turn it off and how to do that.

its an emergency alert system. If it was a terror attack would you say the same? What about a nuclear attack? Etc etc or are those okay for the government to not inform people in advance?

in an emergency they can’t go oh wait we need to publicise that we are doing this in advance as that puts millions at risk. As you may not realise not all emergencies are known in advance

You say that you hope the government have a more informed perspective before they pull this again? So you’d rather not be informed of an emergency? What would you rather the government do then?

I can guarantee you’d kick off big time if you weren’t informed about an emergency

The alert isn’t new, it was tested last year. People can turn it off if they don’t want the alerts.

YABU. The alerts can very easily be turned off.

I agree with you OP - dreadful really - most of these victims wouldn’t have thought to alter settings on their phone in case of this . I think that the siren aspect of the alarm notification was an absolute overkill. Ironically, this alarm may potentially have created an immediate threat to those already trapped and walking on eggshells in their own homes. I’m so angry about this.

It’s meant to alert you of a threat. It’s hardly going to play a nice soft sound. Loads of countries have these. We all had the tests last year.

Totally agree, there should be a better way around this and for people on this thread to blame the victims is ridiculous and horrible, can't some people find any empathy at all?
Perhaps they should have an option in the do not disturb section for turning off alerts, like they do for alarms and everything else. Who would think to go to a random place in settings.

As others have said, it’s been publicised enough that these can be turned off. You can’t send a warning of a warning. The only thing to be angry about is the violent men.

There was a huge campaign last time, and when it was set up.

There ways round it. I think we need the system. Though last night’s use of it was poor and unnecessary.

Also you can opt out of the alerts now. It's easily done in settings.

How so?

They don’t really need a more informed perspective. They’ve the tested these several times and this isn’t the first time they have been used. Both the government and domestic violence charities have publicised this before.

At best they may need a more permanent ad campaign but we can’t really not have this system to provide information that potentially saves lives because some men are putting other peoples lives as risks. It’s unfortunate but I don’t really see another option.

It wasn’t for an immediate threat to life though which I’d imagine it should be.
I think we need to be clear about this.
Also important to remember that alot of these victims will be preoccupied with surviving their own trauma from day to day and unlikely to be thinking about such campaigns shown a while back.

It's possible to turn off the alerts, I turned mine off as I'm deaf so wouldn't hear it anyway and it scares the hell out of my cats.

Since everyone flocks to social media to talk about the alert I am still made aware of the contents within a few mins.

There are a lot of things that spike domestic violence like sports events and bank holidays. While it's tragic that anyone is hurt, we can't change the whole world to avoid triggering some angry men.

It’s all over FB. I’ve copy pasted this one.

“If you don’t want the Government sending you ‘ Emergency Alerts ‘ they can be disabled in your phones ‘Settings/Notifications ‘ … scroll to the bottom of ‘Notifications ‘ and toggle ‘Emergency Alerts ‘ to off!
You might miss the warning of the imminent Nuclear Holocaust but “Hey , so what ? “

They test the alert system monthly where I live. We need it because we have life threatening weather and people always need to be prepared to go into a storm shelter.

If someone needs to have a secret phone, they have to plan for this.

Yeah, sorry but if you’re going to keep a secret phone you need to make sure you switch off those alerts. It’s not like we weren’t all aware that they’re a thing now. I feel sad for any woman who is experiencing that and I hope they’re ok. I won’t get in to whether or not that alert was really necessary, but one day they will be and collectively sending them our cannot factor in a small minority of people who are able to prepare by turning them off

Sorry, but this isn’t the government’s fault. Anyone with a secret phone needs to turn the alerts off when they get the phone. If they don’t, it’s their own fault. It isn’t like this was secret or unknown - it’s heavily publicised and if you’re needing a secret phone then the responsibility for securing the phone is on you.

I bet men having affairs remembered to disabled the alarm on their secret phones. Woman in much more serious situations can do the same.

It’s a perfectly valid use. Using it after a wildfire is rapidly approaching your house is a bit late. We have firefighters and civilians in hospital, people have lost their houses and the fire service is completely over stretched at this point.

Pretty much all wildfires are started by humans often accidentally. The situation in many parts of the country is extremely risky at the moment and we need people to be careful and follow instructions.

You can switch off the alerts. I did and didn’t get anything yesterday. Neither did my friend who switched them off.