Police trials of child-safety app begin

A smartphone app that allows children to send alerts to their parents if they are in danger has moved a step closer to becoming generally available.

The himayati (my protection) app can be downloaded free of charge, can only be activated by parents, and the police response time to an alert from it is estimated at just four minutes. Maj Gen Nasser Al Nuaimi, secretary general at the Office of the Interior Ministry, said when an alert is sent using the app, parents can request immediate police help simply by pressing a button on their smartphones.

A two-month trial phase has begun at the Abu Dhabi Police central operations room, according to Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister paper of The National.

It is expected that police offices across the UAE will eventually be linked to the system.

Maj Gen Ahmed Al Raisi, the director general of central operations at Abu Dhabi Police, said the application would help authorities to respond faster. When a user clicks on the picture of a relative , their last-known location appears. Messages can also be sent to family members asking for a location.

Parents can also set their children’s expected times of arrival and departure from schools.

The app is available now for Android phones, and will also be released for the Apple, Blackberry and Windows operating systems.