UAE government calls on parents to use its app
The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Interior has called on parents to use its smartphone app to help them communicate with their children, Gulf News reports.
The Hemayati or ‘my protection’ smartphone app includes a built-in feature that enables children to send distress calls to their parents in case they feel threatened.
It also allows parents to locate their offsprings by using another function of the app.
Parents as well as children can also send an emergency signal or ‘Smart SOS’ to the ministry’s Operation Room, which will be given priority with a response time of four minutes.
Lt Col Faisal Mohammad Al Shammari, the senior civil servant in charge of the ministry’s smart government programme, said the app had been designed “specifically to enhance the protection of children and to help parents locate their children when they are lost.” he said.
He added that “installing the application on family members’ phones must be done through mutual consent, and at their own discretion.”
About Winnie Agbonlahor
Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.
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