A new safety app for young women uses “lifelines” to help safeguard them from predators.
The GPS-tracking smartphone app, the Guardian Duress Alarm for iPhone and Android, was created by a Brisbane couple. It involves adding five friends or family members as “lifelines”.
In an emergency, pressing a button sends a distress message to your five contacts’ phones and email, with your location tracked every five to 10 seconds on a map.
Your friends can call to check in, but if there’s no answer the app can be taken to police. The app can be given a four-digit pin so only the owner can turn it off.
Creator Michael Davis believes the app could save a life.
“It only takes a second to activate it; you press the icon and drop it into your handbag and nobody knows what you’re doing,” Davis says.
Davis says women can also use the app if they become separated from friends on a night out.
As women – and men – become more concerned about their safety, are there other ways in which you can put their minds at ease?
