How to turn off the amber alert?

[112112333]

Hello. I am an international student who has received twice amber alerts this month. I did not find the place to turn off this alert, so I come here for help!

I know that this alert may help the children to be saved much quicker. However, I cannot help with this situation, and this alert leads to many negative effects on me. 

1. It influences the quality of sleep and (perhaps) my physical health

      I remember the first time I received the amber alert, I have no idea what this is about. I thought that there may be robbers who would enter my room and kill me. I was so scared that I could not fall asleep that night, which influenced my study on the second day.

Yesterday, I received the second alert. The sound was so scary that my heartbeat became fast, and I felt heart pain for the whole day. I could hardly do anything because of this pain. 

2. I cannot help with this kind of kidnap

I am a student, and I am afraid of going outside at night. Therefore, when the sky is dark, I will not go out. Since the amber alert often appears at night, I can not help with this kind of thing. Besides, I lived near my school and seldom go out when there is no class. Therefore, I cannot help with finding the children. 

3. The alert influence my mental health to some extent

Indeed, I wish the kids being lost can be found quicker, but I cannot help with that. Sometimes I feel guilty about this. . I felt that it is my fault for not being able to offer help. I had a nightmare this morning after hearing the amber alert. In my nightmare, I tried to save the child, but I was killed by the kidnapper. I cannot stop thinking about this today. I think this really influences my mental health. 

I notice that fido does not allow us to turn off all kinds of alerts. However, I still write this post, wishing the company can consider giving customers the chance to turn off this alert or turn this alert into a message without the sound. I wish to turn off this not because I am indifferent. I wish to turn off this because I can not offer any help, and this alert influences my physical and mental health. 

[Gofanon]

Wow. Here we have an amazing system called Amber Alert which has helped many child abductions and any normal caring human being would have no issues with a momentary text if it is possibly going to save a life. Then to post all the narcissistic nonsense as if you're the victim. Go ahead and turn it off, but have you no shame? Are you not embarrassed to publicly post how an amber alert of all things has abused you? 

[EFTC]

I think the amber alert system is build into the SIM card and build into many late model phone since 2016.  I don't think the carrier (Fido/Rogers/Bell,...etc) can turn those off. The only way to do that is to put the phone in airplane mode or turn the phone off.  I think those amber alert notifications ignores the focus mode (iphone) or silent mode (Andriod).

If you really want, you can file a complaint to your city commission but I don't think they will do anything.  One time we recieved an alert at 4AM on a weekday. Needless to say many people were not too happy that day.

[Cawtau · Accepted solution]

Hello 112112333,

  Welcome to the community!

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@112112333 wrote:

...I notice that fido does not allow us to turn off all kinds of alerts. However, I still write this post, wishing the company can consider giving customers the chance to turn off this alert or turn this alert into a message without the sound...

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  I understand these types of alerts can be jarring, especially at night. However, the mobile providers are only responsible for distributing the alerts (see here). They are required to distribute the alerts once the Government issuer deems the alerts necessary to be broadcast. It is not possible to opt-out of receiving the alerts (see here).

  That said, there may be some ways to either silence or not receive the alerts on your phone. Since the alerts are sent over the LTE networks, disabling LTE would prevent your phone from receiving those alerts. In addition, depending on your phone, the alerts would likely broadcast at the same volume at which your device is set. If your device is set to silence, it's possible the alert would also be silent (depending on phone). Also, some phones may provide options to select which alerts it receives, however, I do not know how well those options work as it isn't possible to test those settings until the alerts are actually broadcast.

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers