There is a way to avoid getting Amber Alerts on your phone

May 14 2019, 9:07 pm

Editor’s Note: Daily Hive does not recommend this way of avoiding Amber Alerts, but since 9-1-1 keeps getting tied up with calls from residents “annoyed” by the alerts, we have decided to share this information.

Early Tuesday morning, an Amber Alert was issued to notify residents of a missing three-year-old boy who was last seen heading from Sudbury to Toronto.

And despite the obvious importance of the alerts, people are still selfishly calling 9-1-1 to complain about the momentary disruption—which is often the main reason the child is located.

Every time a person calls into 9-1-1 to complain, they are tying up a line that is dedicated to “real emergencies,” which does not include being awoken or disrupted by an Amber Alert.

According to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (CCFCP), an Amber Alert can only be activated by police agencies and is only issued for the most dangerous child abduction cases, when time is of the essence.

While criteria for issuing an Amber Alert may vary from province to province, basic requirements include:

  • The child is under the age of 18;
  • There is a belief that the child has been abducted;
  • There is a belief that the child is in imminent danger;
  • There is information to be released that may help locate the child and/or the abductor (e.g. description of the child, the suspect or the vehicle driven by the abductor)

An Amber Alert must also be issued “within a reasonable amount of time” from the moment of the abduction.

See also

Amber alerts are crucially important, and while we definitely suggest keeping them on, you might find there are times when you’d like to turn them off, most likely because you’re out of town or you don’t like to receive them in the early hours of the morning.

If this is the case and you want to opt out of receiving these alerts, you can disable LTE on your iPhone and use 3G data only, according to iPhone in Canada.

On your iPhone 5 or newer, just go to: Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options > Enable LTE > OFF.

For those running iOS 12.3 beta on an iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max or iPhone XR, go to: Settings > Cellular > Primary > Enable LTE > OFF.

If you’re running an Android device, you’ll have to turn off LTE in your settings to opt out, according to iPhone in Canada.

Since the alerts are sent out to those connected to LTE networks, by using your 3G data, you should not receive any alerts.

However, this won’t disable receiving the alerts indefinitely, as you’ll have to follow these steps every time you want to disable LTE and use your 3G data.

DH Toronto StaffDH Toronto Staff

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