Domestic abuse charities' advice about new emergency alert trial amid concerns for victims of abuse
How the alert system will work.
Domestic violence charities have expressed concern about how a new government emergency alert service may reveal hidden phones used by victims of abuse.
For around 10 seconds from 3pm on Sunday, millions of smartphones and tablets across the UK will emit a loud alarm and vibrate in a trial of a system that aims to warn the public if there is a danger to life nearby.
They will also display a message about what is happening.
Women's Aid Federation Northern Ireland has issued advice to some victims of domestic abuse who may have a hidden phone because their abuser controls or confiscates their other mobile device.
Karen Devlin, from the charity, told UTV the alerts were welcome but it was important to recognise the potential risk they could pose for victims of abuse.
"We welcome these alerts of external dangers but we need to recognise the internal threats which some people who are victims of abuse experience and these secondary phones are quite literally a lifeline for them," she said.
"So it's important to take the necessary steps to disable these alerts before they come to your phone."
The following is advice from Women's Aid on how to to disable the emergency alerts on both Apple and android devices:
On an Apple device:
Open your device
Go to the 'settings'
Then scroll down until you find 'notifications'
Once you open notifications, you will see many of the apps you've downloaded, but scroll down to the very bottom where you will see a section labelled 'Emergency Alerts'
You just then need to un-toggle 'extreme alerts' & 'severe alerts'
Once you've done this, the alerts have now been disabled.
On an Android device:
Open your device.
Go to 'settings' Then scroll down until you find 'safety and emergency'
Scroll down again and you will see an option labelled 'Wireless emergency alerts' and click it.
You just then need to un-toggle 'allow alerts' & you will see the two options below it labelled 'Extreme alerts' & 'Severe Alerts' fade out.
Once you've done this, the alerts have now been disabled.
More advice from Women's Aid is available here.
The system is modelled on similar schemes in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Japan.
The UK's alerts will initially be used to warn people about severe weather situations including floods and wildfires in their local area.
The Government said on Monday the system could later be used for other forms of emergencies such as terror attacks, nuclear threats and dangerous criminals on the loose.
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