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0 pointschiefalchemist2y ago0 comments

Once a week my phone buzzes with some sort of child-alert, abduction and/or storm warnings. How is what's needed in this case any different?

0 comments

ncallaway2y ago

There are lots of things the government needs to disseminate that are important, but don't need to be push notifications for everyone.

delecti2y ago

Those are very annoying and usually useless, so many people turn them off (everyone I know does). And if you miss one for any of the many reasons that could occur in an emergency, I wouldn't know where to go to seek out those alerts.

ineedasername2y ago

People die or get injured in my region annually during flash floods, snow storms, etc., so most people don't turn off these alerts. The ones who get hurt are the unlucky or disadvantaged or people who ignore the alerts.

Child alert systems find about 50 or 60 kids a year (US). Turning them off is a pretty shit move for the ~dozen per year that come through.

> if you miss one for any of the many reasons that could occur in an emergency(

"It's not perfect so why bother?" Is an odd attitude. Per the above, I keep on emergency weather alerts even though I might miss some.

>I wouldn't know where to go to seek out those alerts.*

You can fix that. I know where to go for such things during adverse weather events, and when an AMBER alert has been issue for a kid I'm often curious enough to see if it's been called off a few hours later.

coldpie2y ago

> Child alert systems find about 50 or 60 kids a year (US). Turning them off is a pretty shit move for the ~dozen per year that come through.

As far as I know, the only options on my phone for these alerts are "deafeningly loud alarm" and "entirely disabled." After my phone woke me up at 3 AM for some kid being abducted in some other town, it's now off permanently. I did the same for weather alerts after it destroyed my ears to tell me about some flash flooding alert on some street across town that I will never use.

There is literally no situation in which my phone making a deafeningly loud alarm is acceptable, so I turn all those alerts off to make sure it doesn't happen again. If the implementation were better, I might leave them on. But it isn't, so I don't.

ineedasername2y ago

So you've determined that you are a exception in so far as never being in any potential danger from something covered in the contents of a emergency alert.

This does not counter argument that the GGP comment is incorrect in labelling these systems "mostly useless"

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progman322y ago

No situation at all? What if you were on that street?

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addaon2y ago

One challenge with AMBER alerts is that they don't provide enough information for the receiver to determine if the alert reflects a credible danger to a child, or if it's a nuisance alert where the system is being abused during a custody battle. Further, the very nature of a highly disruptive, high volume alert like this is to encourage the public to take extreme action -- e.g. following a vehicle -- that increases danger for both the involved child and everyone else in the area. While there are attempts to fix this very broken system (e.g. [1]), for now I very much consider the cure to be potentially worse than the disease.

[1] https://kutv.com/news/local/law-introduced-for-new-criteria-...

ineedasername2y ago

>e.g. following a vehicle... the cure to be potentially worse than the disease

I'm not aware of citizen vehicle chases being a systemic problem. What other offsetting problems exist that negate the benefits of the system? I don't consider annoyance/disturbance to be sufficient to say it's worse than the disease (which implies it should be stopped, pending overhaul) especially considering the ability to turn the alerts off.

MichaelZuo2y ago

It's not possible to turn off alerts of the highest authority, "Presidential alerts", without turning off the phone. All basemodem and smartphone manufacturers selling in North America hardcode this into the black box part of the firmware. (Which is part of the approval process and why you'll never be able to buy a 'fully unlocked' phone.)

For example in Ontario, every alert is sent out at this authority.

chiefalchemistOP2y ago

So for that we blame...Twitter?

delecti2y ago

Where in my comment did I mention twitter, or imply anything about it? I was just saying that the automated phone alerts aren't a great fit for something like wildfire evacuation instructions. At the very least they shouldn't be the only avenue for that information.

Twitter was fantastic for that kind of thing though.

chiefalchemistOP2y ago

You didn't. But the topic is public notifications and Twitter. You seemed to imply the alternative to Twitter isn't effective, within a thread that starts with Twitter isn't effective.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

ncallaway2y ago

There are lots of things the government needs to disseminate that are important, but don't need to be push notifications for everyone.

delecti2y ago

ineedasername2y ago

Child alert systems find about 50 or 60 kids a year (US). Turning them off is a pretty shit move for the ~dozen per year that come through.

> if you miss one for any of the many reasons that could occur in an emergency(

"It's not perfect so why bother?" Is an odd attitude. Per the above, I keep on emergency weather alerts even though I might miss some.

>I wouldn't know where to go to seek out those alerts.*

coldpie2y ago

> Child alert systems find about 50 or 60 kids a year (US). Turning them off is a pretty shit move for the ~dozen per year that come through.

ineedasername2y ago

So you've determined that you are a exception in so far as never being in any potential danger from something covered in the contents of a emergency alert.

This does not counter argument that the GGP comment is incorrect in labelling these systems "mostly useless"

1 more reply

progman322y ago

No situation at all? What if you were on that street?

1 more reply

addaon2y ago

[1] https://kutv.com/news/local/law-introduced-for-new-criteria-...

ineedasername2y ago

>e.g. following a vehicle... the cure to be potentially worse than the disease

MichaelZuo2y ago

For example in Ontario, every alert is sent out at this authority.

chiefalchemistOP2y ago

So for that we blame...Twitter?

delecti2y ago

Twitter was fantastic for that kind of thing though.

chiefalchemistOP2y ago

You didn't. But the topic is public notifications and Twitter. You seemed to imply the alternative to Twitter isn't effective, within a thread that starts with Twitter isn't effective.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse