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SOS: Samsung helping the victims of bullying and crime.

I was just browsing the Carphone Warehouse site, and noticed the “Back to School” offers they have. This however wasn’t what I was interested in; it was something called SOS Messaging.

SOS messaging according to the CPH website is:
“Feeling in danger? Simply press the volume key 4 times on your phone to
discreetly alert your parents that you need help.”

Now maybe not the most interesting piece of news ever, and I certainly wouldn’t expect a lot of older people to understand how amazingly fantastic this idea is; but take it from me, this has to be one of the most enlightening pieces of information I have read in a very long time.

For example, I myself have been in a number of situations where I’ve felt seriously in danger. However, getting your phone out, making a text or call is not the easiest task to complete. Nor is it practical if say for instance you know the people you’re quite scared of may be tempted to “jack” your mobile.

To put it simply, ever been so angry or even frightened where all you do is shake? Well, try and write a text when your arms are doing an uncontrollable fit. It’s not easy, and it isn’t going to get you any help fast at all!

However it’s also the button. It doesn’t require the phone to be taken into sight. This means you may stand a lower chance of having your phone stolen off of you, or even being ridiculed for requiring assistance.

I can say having a mobile for some part does make me feel safer, but not completely. This due to the impracticalities that come with texting or calling your parents, or maybe the police if you’re in danger or someone else is. The Samsung idea completely eliminates this problem, which is not only brilliant, but hopefully a huge help.

I can say that those of days of walking home from school in fear are gone; but as we all know the sad truth is, there will be always more victims of bullying or of aggressive attacks. Yes the mobile phone is useful, but its limitations make it useless in situations such as these.

I hope other big companies follow suit with this idea; especially Sony and Nokia who have a lot of custom with the teenage market. But I also hope that more is done to educate youngsters, especially those starting high school. It’s daunting to say the least, but in our current climate of living in fear, more should be done to reassure my generation, and those younger than myself of these tools available.

A lot of time, effort and money are wasted on “talking” about the issue of bullying, and teenage crime. This though is just a waste, as not a lot is done to prevent, help or deter anyone from these activities. It is only simple measures such as the SOS Messaging which make some of the biggest differences to one’s confidence and ability to handle themselves in dangerous or worrying situations.

13 COMMENTS

  1. That's a great spot, Samantha.

    What would that alert 'do' though — does it, for example, send a text message to your mum saying 'help'? Surely the first thing mum would do is then phone you…? Could be useful… could be rather annoying if you're trying not to get phonejacked.

  2. Hmm…
    I would imagine that it sends a message based on the time the alert was called, and maybe a GPS location?

    Although yes, having a distraught parent ringing up after they have misunderstood the message would be highly annoying, and probably remove all need for the device.

    Samantha.

  3. Interesting concept but please play the scenario through. The child presses the volume button four times thus alerting their parents to their predicament. The parents now know that their child is in some form of danger. Then what? The parents may know where there child is and rush to help them but most importantly they may not which will lead to a deluge of calls to the police from panic stricken parents.
    Unless I am missing something this service is akin to placing a lighthouse in a bog – great tool, wrong location.
    From Samsungs' point of view, you should not go to market with a serious piece of functionality that is not tested, tested, tested in the marketplace. That being said, Samsung should be congratulated on introducing this service and combined with other measures such as prevention of bullying by SMS (http://www.openmindnetworks.com/operators/Bully…), it will go some way to ensuring a more protective society for our children.

  4. Actually, being rung up is probably not a bad psychological solution. Firstly, one click and you are talking to someone you want to talk to (no dialing rubish) and it shows to everyone around you that there are people out there who are connected to you who care.

    If you are dealling with really bad people nothing will help. In stressful moments when you want reassurance or someone to advise you out of a sticky situation suddenly getting a phone call might be very handy.

  5. “I can say that those of days of walking home from school in fear are gone; but as we all know the sad truth is, there will be always more victims of bullying or of aggressive attacks”

    No, no ,no, no. A thousand times no.

    Children are safer now than_they_have_ever_been. I recall getting on the wrong side of a bunch of much larger kids at school (might have had something to do with the fact my mum put them all on detention – she was their form teacher). Got duffed up a bit. Was moderately terrified as a 13-yr old. This was over 20 years ago, ahem, before you were born. Yesteryear was not all rosy, children got abducted, murdered, abused etc just as often in more or less any previous generation. Humanity's prevalence to do harm to each other has not changed fundamentally, except because most are happier/wealthier now there's less reason to go out & mug someone.

    To hear a 16-year old come out with a Daily Mail / Sun-type statement that intuits that kids are somehow worse off now than previous reflects what a sterling job the UK media has done in scaring people unnecessarily, and just doesn't bear scrutiny.

    Most people are quite happy, and feel their community is safe (numerous surveys), but think everyone else is unhappy and at risk.You can't have both. Personal experience is just that, and doesn't make a national reality, unless all you do is read tabloids.

    Agree 100% with Michaelob, Samsung have effectively thrown a hand-grenade over the wall of child-parent safety concerns and then run off.

    /m

  6. Mike, I think you may have actually mis-understood me here.
    I didn't want to go into details of my experiences, but I'm not talking about things that are happening to me now; I'm talking about things happening to me when I was 12/13/14/15. And nor did I ever say that I am any worse off than the previous generations.

    What I was trying to say was that this kind of thing has happened before, maybe worse, maybe to the same extent, and it's still happening and continuing to happen.

    And the happiness side doesn't come into it at all. Bullying in schools still happens, and I've had it, I see and I know when I return in September I will also be seeing it too.

    I don't read the tabloids, because I know they are only worth as much as toilet paper really. I can ask you now, do you have to sit in assemblys listening to your head teacher or so talking about another Year 7 who was mugged on the way home from school? Or, about a new wave of bullying?

    This isn't about public safety or fear of crime. It's the reality I, and thousands of other school children have faced, and will continue to face.

    Samantha.

  7. Michael,

    I understand you point here, and it's completely valid. But at the same time it does have benefits.

    For example, “happy slapping” – that started out as simply slapping someone round the face and filming it. Now it's seriously harming people. Would it be so bad if the police were to be called on that occasion?

    Or how about an experience I was part of, in the park with my friends and brother and a group of boys who don't like me start attacking my brother. Getting beaten up and so fourth. Me calling the police on that occasion quite possibly ensured he had nothing worse than some bruised ribs, broken nose and black eye. He was one against six, and I dread to think of what could have happened.

    So yes, it does have it's downsides, which I accept is some occasions will not be the most ideal tool. However, in some cases it does prove useful.

    Samantha.

  8. Cool.

    But you do summarise that this sort of mobile feature will be a panacea to the problem.

    “It is only simple measures such as the SOS Messaging which make some of the biggest differences to one

  9. Such an interesting topic…
    i've just downloaded an application called Smart SOS that works for Nokia phone. it just needs one click and it cans send the GPS location in SMS and Email..you can try it your self on Handango . I've downloaded a trial copy from http://sos.enpronoimcs.com
    i think this may solve the issue

  10. Such an interesting topic…
    i've just downloaded an application called Smart SOS that works for Nokia phone. it just needs one click and it cans send the GPS location in SMS and Email..you can try it your self on Handango . I've downloaded a trial copy from http://sos.enpronoimcs.com
    i think this may solve the issue

  11. Such an interesting topic…
    i've just downloaded an application called Smart SOS that works for Nokia phone. it just needs one click and it cans send the GPS location in SMS and Email..you can try it your self on Handango . I've downloaded a trial copy from http://sos.enpronoimcs.com
    i think this may solve the issue

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