Why is there a tiny red light on top of my iphone 5

For people who had this, I'm pretty late but... Its either the Proximity Light or the Infared Light. Proximity is used to turn off your phone if your hand or face is close to it in order to preserve batter while on a call, if it's on while not on a call, place your hand near it and Siri should pop up. If that's not it, it's the Infared Light whichever is used to dim your display brightness so it doesn't hurt your eyes at night. (I also freaked out when I first saw this and realized it wasn't the Proximity)

Yes, it is a proximity sensor. If your iPhone is unlocked and you hold the phone up to your ear, you will find that Siri comes on - this is triggered by that proximity sensor.

Yeah I covered mine with a bandaid since it was the only thing I had

Aliens sometimes use your camera to record what's going on, primarily at night, but most likely just your proximity sensor, as Ingo has stated.

I low-key thought it was a pedo looking at me through my camera lol

Omg same. That is why I'm reading this discussion right now lmao

What's the purpose of it though?

I thought there was like someone watching me through my camera I was going to cover it with duck tape lol

Thank you so much! I'm a girl and I seriously thought it was someone hacking my phone and watching me through the dot and that's why the light was there. But thank you for telling everyone I think it helped me calm down a lot!!

I'm a girl too and I felt the exact same way I was just staring at the dot with my eyes wide opened and just staring at it because I was SOO freaked out... I eventually covered it with my thumb only thing I had.

I legit just freaked out about it and covered my cameras with ductt

Wait it doesn't work tho

Same it is so weird that other ppl had the same problem it is weird I thought it was Pedro watching me through my camera

Literally i thought the s

This is the proximity sensor, no need to worry, depending on the light it can have a red glow.