Wearable Protection, Wink Wink

To the other classes, the title is an inside joke, ignore it please.

            To the presentation given Friday towards sexual assault, I say good job. The topic itself is very difficult to approach since there are so many different situations and variables at play, but action needs to be taken to resolve/diminish sexual assault. Hopefully someone will continue this idea and take it to a further step in some manner.

            The idea of having wearable "help transmitters," has many caveats.  Just a few include: false alarms, trouble sending messages, and reliability in such a device. False alarms can be a giant hindrance to local police if they are alarmed too many times for situations that do not require their presence (such as someone misunderstanding a "peck on the cheek.") Disregarding the false alarms and going on faith that people will have good judgment in their decision on when to call for help, in sexual assault, many times the assailant temporarily cripples the victim, resulting in an inability to use the device. If it were as easy as reaching for a button, or a device, people would just stick to easily accessible pepper spray. In the case of the victim not having access to their hands, or the device, it would be a decent idea if the device had a "voice raise" function or verbalization setting that would allow it to automatically trigger a call to the police if someone yells "help." In the case of someone yelling something and it not being a threating scenario, the trigger should be easy to disable, thwarting a false alarm.

            This device by itself is not a fail-safe. Sexual assault has to go together with basic knowledge of safe situations and how to manage oneself, this does not apply just to girls. Aggravation is a serious situation, whether it be sexual or non-sexual, it does happen, and basic knowledge of how to prevent situations, and how to escape situations need to be put into play. The device should not be set as the primary method of protection, just like a condom, it will not always work. There might be a hole in it or something around those lines.

            Going back to the device on a technical standpoint, devices always have some bugs. Sometimes signals may not reach their destination, maybe the fingerprint will be placed slightly off the screen, and these are just two examples. Aggravative situations should not be taken lightly and be dependent on only one method of protection, except a stun gun, you might be okay if you have a stun gun.