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Mark asked: “Is there such a device that I can use in my home that when I have everybody there to eat, I can flip a switch, turn something on, and it will shut down the entire cell signal in my home or in a given area, so that no one is pulling out their phone, checking Instagram or whatever?”
Mark, there certainly are devices that will block cellphone signals, WiFi, GPS, police radar, and more, you can easily find them online from anything from below $100 to several thousands, and they are 100% illegal to operate.
The FCC even has the following warning on their website: “We remind and warn consumers that it is a violation of federal law to use a cell jammer or similar devices that intentionally block, jam, or interfere with authorized radio communications such as cell phones, police radar, GPS, and Wi-Fi. Despite some marketers’ claims, consumers cannot legally use jammers within the United States, nor can retailers lawfully sell them.”
The fines are no joke, a man in Florida in 2014 was fined $48,000 for using a jammer to keep other drivers around him off their phones, a truck driver that worked around La Guardia airport was fined almost $32,000 and fired when he was caught using a GPS jammer so his boss couldn’t track him. He had accidentally interfered with airport communications.
An IT worker in Chicago that wanted peace on his train ride was sent to jail until he posted $10,000 bail on a possible $100,000 fine while awaiting trial for using a jammer. A school in Dallas was charged a $25,000 fine for blocking signals.
It’s up to you if you want to risk it, but you may want to talk to your social media addicts instead and see if you can reason with them.