9-year-old girl unlocked her dad’s iPhone using Face ID to call emergency services, but was that even necessary?

A 9-year-old girl in Brockton, Massachusetts in the U.S., Jayline Barbosa Brandão, was credited with saving her family from carbon monoxide poisoning after calling emergency services with her dad’s iPhone. According to Jayline, she managed to do so by using her dad’s unconscious face to unlock his phone using Face ID.

After a powerful nor’easter, which is a synoptic-scale extratropical cyclone, her family had been without power for three days and ended up borrowing a generator for their home. However, they set it up “too close to their home”, and the colorless, odorless carbon monoxide gas flooded the area—affecting her mom first, leaving her unconscious.

“I heard my dad screaming and saw my mom passed out,” said Jayline.

She continued saying that her dad was “overwhelmed” by the carbon monoxide, so Jayline took the initiative to call emergency services using her dad’s iPhone. She was able to hold it up to his face to unlock it using Face ID.

In the reports, they didn’t specify if her dad ended up being unconscious as well, or if he was just overwhelmed but still conscious. But if he was unconscious, Phonearena figured that Jayline’s dad might have had “Require Attention for Face ID” toggled off, which would have allowed his daughter to unlock his phone without his eyes being open and looking at the screen.

Usually, the “Require Attention for Face ID” option would be automatically enabled. You can find the option in Settings > Face ID & Passcode. this option will make sure that you’re really looking at the device before it unlocks your iPhone.

Having “Require Attention for Face ID” on will make it extremely difficult for Jayline to unlock her dad’s phone, especially in a situation where she’s running against time. It’s likely that her dad might still be conscious but is having a hard time making a decision due to the carbon monoxide poisoning.

Of course, the nine-year-old would have still been able to contact emergency services with a locked phone. If you aren’t able to unlock the phone using Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode, you’re able to press “Emergency” on the bottom left of your iPhone.

Still, the 9-year-old girl might not have known that she would have been able to do so. But her quick thinking managed to save her family from possible carbon monoxide-related death.

“She was so smart… That was very scary. If it wasn’t (for) her to call right away I don’t know what would have happened,” said Jayline’s mom, Marcelina Brandão.

The Brockton Fire Department also responded to about 20 carbon monoxide cases in the aftermath of the nor’easter, according to CNN. It’s mostly due to generators, which are often used especially after dangerous weather events in the U.S. like hurricanes and storms as people use them to power their homes after losing connection to the electric grid. It’s recommended that generators should not be used within 20 feet of any doors, windows, and vents and that users should also get a working carbon monoxide detector.

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