A University of British Columbia student has launched an online fundraiser for a pilot project to provide 100 sex trade workers in Vancouver’s downtown eastside with a GPS-enabled panic button that would send a text message to summon help.
While the panic button idea isn’t new – some alarm companies offer panic-button devices, hikers can get GPS devices that send alerts if they find themselves lost or in trouble and there are many other similar applications – second year medical student Isabel Chen is proposing to use GPS-enabled texting technology to create a mobile safety net for sex workers.
Once the panic button is pressed, it would send a text message alert to a specified phone number, giving the user’s GPS coordinates.
Chen said unlike personal safety devices that have an always-on tracking system, the solution she and fellow students Kyle Ragins, a MD candidate at Yale University and Vanessa Forro, a Master’s of Public Health candidate at Case Western, are proposing safeguards the user’s anonymity and only shares their whereabouts when the alarm is triggered.