|
?:reviewBody
|
-
In late 2017, a number of memes circulated on Facebook advising iPhone users of a purported new function allowing them to discreetly contact emergency services by pressing the Lock button five times and selecting Emergency SOS: \ Readers asked: This option is available to users of iPhones running the operating system iOS 11. An Apple Support page explaining the details and limitations of the feature began: The feature is accessible by different methods, depending on the iPhone model and geographic location of the user: Because the feature depends iOS 11, users of iPhone models older than 5s cannot access it. Users with newer iPhones must upgrade to iOS 11 in order to access the feature; they should read Apple's documentation and test whether they can access the Emergency SOS option before trying to use it in an emergency. The service may depend on the reliability of local emergency services. Travelers should also inform themselves about how to manually access emergency services in whatever location they are visiting, as it is entirely possible that they might not have access to their phone in an emergency. Skepticism about the claim wasn't unwarranted. A similar rumor held that asking Siri (iPhone's voice assistant) to charge my phone to 100 percent would trigger a police response, but that was mostly false. Rumors about ways to surreptitiously contact emergency services long predate the use of smart phones. Another false rumor purported that leaving a phone off the hook would eventually trigger a 911 call. The danger of these rumors is that they give potential crime victims a false sense of security, and could distract from other (real) ways to get help in an emergency.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}