Domestic abuse victims are being advised on how to disable an emergency siren that will sound on phones next month.
Brits will receive a test alert from the Government on April 2 3 as part of a new system intended to warn the public in life-threatening situations such as flooding and wildfires.
Women’s charities have been quick to advise how to turn off the 10-second siren - which will go off even if phones are on silent mode - amid concerns it will reveal domestic abuse victims’ secret phones.
Advising women online, Refuge said: “If you're living with an abusive partner, this could put you at risk because it could let your partner know about a secret or secondary phone. Even if your phone is on silent, the emergency alert will still make a sound.”
The charity said its tech safety team has put together a guide on how to turn the alerts off, both for Android and for iPhones, which can be found online.
The guide explains that the siren can be disabled by switching “emergency alerts” off in the settings app.
It is understood government officials have spoken at length to domestic violence charities about people who might have concealed phones.
They found that women who are most likely to have them are those who are already getting support from charities and so will be advised on how to turn off alerts.
Emergency services, government departments, agencies and public bodies that deal with emergencies will be the only organisations with the power to send alerts.
The scheme - modelled after similar schemes in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Japan - will initially focus on the most serious severe weather-related events, with the ability to get a message to 90% of mobile users within the relevant area in an emergency.
In the future, the siren could also be used for emergencies such as terrorist incidents however this would be on a case by case basis. For instance, phones would not be alerted if advice was for the public to run, hide and tell.
The system is intended to be location-specific and is cheaper and less time-consuming than sending texts.
Members of the public should receive the alert about four to 10 seconds after it has been sent, whereas SMS messages can take days to release when sent to the entire population.
After the announcement yesterday, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden said: "We are strengthening our national resilience with a new emergency alerts system, to deal with a wide range of threats – from flooding to wildfires.
"It will revolutionise our ability to warn and inform people who are in immediate danger, and help us keep people safe.
"As we've seen in the US and elsewhere, the buzz of a phone can save a life."
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