Table 2 App functionality definitions
Incident assistance | |
|---|---|
Alarm systems | Designed to alert individuals in the user’s physical environment (e.g. flashing light, siren) |
Evasive action | Enable users to evade or flee danger (e.g. ‘diversion calls’—which trigger a fake phone call; ‘duress pins’—fake pin codes which ostensibly unlock the phone, but send an emergency message) |
Alert systems | Send electronic alert to a specified recipient(s) (e.g. pre-designated contacts) |
Evidence capture | Allows the capture of violence through photos, audio and/or video. Some apps offer users the capacity to store this material remotely, in case damage occurs to their phone |
Information generation and dissemination | |
Monitoring others | Features which enable the monitoring of others including location tracking (e.g. show a user’s live location, or check-in on arrival at a predetermined location), geofence alerts (sent when a contact departs from a larger, pre-set boundary) and parental controls that allow monitoring and/or restriction of apps use |
Educational materials | Materials containing violence prevention advice (i.e. recognising, tackling and preventing violence) including information on ongoing violent incidents (‘incident mapping’), and rates of violence in a given area. They also include skills-based approaches for violence mitigation and first-aid (e.g. self-defence tips). Apps can also include service/support contact information |