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from the be-alert,-the-country-needs-more-lerts dept.
frojack writes:
"Amber alerts on our smartphones are starting to become all too frequent, and like most things, they are burdened with a certain degree of Feature Creep. Not just for abducted children anymore, the Alert system in US carrier sold phones can carry Presidential Alerts, Imminent Threat Alerts (weather or forest fires mostly) and the original AMBER alert for missing children.
Its not clear the President is ever going to have a single message for the entire population, where that message will make any difference to the average citizen. But then, this category is seldom abused. Weather broadcasts are invariably too late, historically too widely distributed, and often simply redundant. And Amber Alerts are, in the majority of cases, custody disputes, where the child is never in any real danger.
Amber Alerts are quickly becoming viewed as security theater, and the most abused aspect of the entire system. This has increasing numbers of people opting out of the alerts on their phones as a result.
The Amber system is the "third rail" of child safety discussions, and few agencies are willing to address its failings. Do we need additional shades of Amber, or the ability to filter custody disputes from the system?"
(Score: 5, Interesting) by samwichse on Tuesday March 11 2014, @12:01PM
Just last week we had an amber alert in my area. It was startling, I had only heard that tone once before, and I thought it was annoying (a stupid 2:00am warning about high wind). But the alert was informative (black SUV, so and so model, tag #whatever, last seen here), and instead, I kept my eye out for that car.
I didn't see it, but someone did and called it in and they found the kid at an inn.
There was an outcry about the stupid weather alert, and we haven't had one since. If they start abusing it, I'll turn it off. But I plan to start a family myself soon, so... do unto others.
Sam