If you have an iPhone , and you have never investigated the different menus and options that you can find in the Settings section, it is possible that you have never come across the so-called AMBER Alerts .
The so-called AMBER alert was originally born in 1996, when a nine-year-old girl, Amber Hagerman, was kidnapped in the US state of Texas. His body was found lifeless days later, and his killer was never found.
Precisely as a result of this situation, the different state authorities began to develop an early warning system in order to help find kidnapped children , subsequently receiving the name AMBER (American’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response).
Although at first it was a tool only located in that state, later it ended up spreading throughout the entire country and even in other areas of the region, such as Mexico.
According to the US Department of Justice, the AMBER alert has been “very effective”, since between 2002 and 2010, thanks to this system, 495 minors were rescued.
How do AMBER alerts work?
They consist of alerts that disrupt the regular programming , and through it, all abductions of minors that meet a series of criteria are announced on television, radio and electronic signs on the roads. And, in addition, they are sent not only via mobile phone, but also on the Internet .
These types of alerts are established by the United States FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), along with two other alerts (Presidential Alerts and Imminent Threat Alerts), through the WEA system , which consists precisely of a system that sends a warning to the different mobile devices that are in a certain area , showing both the type of alert and its duration, the agency that issues it and the measures that should be taken.
In our country, for example, there is a similar system, known as the Alert – Missing Minor , which works to issue alerts and notices asking the population for their collaboration in certain cases of disappearance of minors.
However, for some time Spain, like other European Union countries, has been working on the AML (Advanced Mobile Location) system, the objective of which is that the different emergency services obtain at the moment the precise information about the location of the individual who is calling the emergency number (for example, 112).
It would be a much more precise service, especially if we compare it with the traditional GSM location, and it would already be integrated in both iOS and Android, its inclusion being mandatory in all member states of the European Union by December 2020.
How to turn AMBER alerts on and off on iPhone
In case you are living in the United States, it is perfectly possible to activate or deactivate the AMBER alerts , in addition to the rest of the Government Alerts .
To do this, you must go to the iPhone settings, by clicking on the Settings button that you will find on the device’s home screen. Then, go to Notifications , and slide the screen to the bottom, where you will find the Government Alerts option.
Right here you can activate or deactivate AMBER Alerts and / or Emergency Alerts . However, you may be surprised to discover that they were already activated. And it is that, by default, the most common thing is that the device already comes with these notifications activated as a security measure.
