Anti-Teen Loitering Device: Is It Torture?

• fluff
  April 24th, 2008 at 10:06 am

  Some places in Switzerland tried this device. Fortunately this was only a very short lived experiment.

• jack.wh
  April 24th, 2008 at 10:20 am

  Maybe, although expensive, in common areas of gangs hanging around, they should have CCTV operators who can manually turn the device on?

• luvpumpkns
  April 24th, 2008 at 10:46 am

  i heard about this last year, and whoever reported it had a link to the noise. everyone in my office could hear it(and were annoyed by it), including women and men in their 40’s and 50’s. i had heard that store-owners were thinking about using them in stores to discourage teenaged shoppers. if i ever hear one, they’ll be losing my business fast.

• Sofar
  April 24th, 2008 at 10:53 am

  I love being punished for crimes I haven’t committed yet. You know, if the old people can’t hear anything in that register, how do they know it’s still working? Just disable the thing somehow, they won’t notice.

• Josh
  April 24th, 2008 at 10:54 am

  students use it as a ringtone to alert them to texts so that their teachers cant hear. wish i had that when i was in school.

• Jaycatt
  April 24th, 2008 at 11:11 am

  I’ve always had a pretty good sense of hearing high-pitched sounds, even now, at age 37. I wonder if there’s a sample of this sound online somewhere, to see if I could hear it or not.

• Jaycatt
  April 24th, 2008 at 11:19 am

  In case anyone is interested, here’s a page with ringtones of the various Mosquito sounds, if you’d like to hear. I do think it’s pretty clever to use as a ringtone, so older people apparently wouldn’t be able to hear your phone ring.

  http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/

• Idil
  April 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

  wow this is ridiculous. It would be awesome if they made it into a ringtone though… then the professors wouldn’t hear the phones ringing during class

• Rosi
  April 24th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

  Arg, I hate these things.
  They’ve got one of these outside my local McDonalds. I used to go there reasonably often, about once a week or so, but after they’ve installed this I can’t even go near the place. It’s very painful, especially when it’s just one long sound rather than a beeping noise. It gives some of my friends bad headaches just to walk past it (there’s about a twenty foot radius around it where you can hear the sound). And you can even hear it inside!
  It seems that the companies are trying to drive away their customers! I understand that a very small minority of teenagers want to cause trouble, but what about the much greater majority who are paying customers? Why should we have to suffer?

• Nate
  April 24th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

  We must have this at every mall….near the Starbucks. Why is it I see 20 teenagers hanging out in there every time I go?

• Helgar
  April 24th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

  “Now, there’s no confrontation at all; they just get aggravated and leave within a few minutes.”

  They then gather elsewhere and beat the snot out of each other. Smart device. *rolls eyes* Solving social issues by further aggravating those with the issues isn’t much of a plan, it’s laziness.

• Christophe
  April 24th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

  There is a new law angle in France : some people launched a lawsuit based on medical ground : not hearing a loud sound does not mean it’s not going to harm you hearing.
  Interesting.

• L
  April 24th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

  I’m in my 30s and I can still hear those frequencies. Why should I be punished for something I didn’t do?

• Peter
  April 24th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

  I have an Idea! Lets make one of these to target old people, then watch as AARP goes batshit on everyone for even DARING to have the idea.

• cuimhne
  April 24th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

  I can still hear those frequencies too…and you know what? So can my mom who is pushing 50! This is ridiculous!

• J of The Sandhills
  April 24th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

  i understand the merchants frustration with idle teens hanging around not buying anything….

  if you want to move teenagers away from an area, just play some jazz or big band music. those that dont move are probably too docile to be a problem

• J of The Sandhills
  April 24th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

  it could be worse…i read where in Tokyo, there are these rent a cops who blow whistles at loiters

• avraamov
  April 24th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

  this is just abrogation of wider social responsibilities. everyone’s scared of getting stabbed now, so no-one risks confrontation, and out of sight is out of mind.
  like most acoustic warfare though, you just need earplugs or even closed back headphones. or a can of builder’s foam and a ladder…

  i think there should be an infrasound version for the idiots who install these things.

• otterly
  April 24th, 2008 at 2:03 pm

  I think water jets would be more effective.

• bean
  April 24th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

  Add me to the list of people who just happen to have undamaged hearing. This should be considered a violation of noise ordinances.

• JoBo S
  April 24th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

  My emotions on this are mixed. I can see to use this in problem areas and how that will help. Yet I don’t see that SOLVING the probalem. It seems more like the “sweep it under a rug” tactic.

• Manticore
  April 24th, 2008 at 3:42 pm

  and yet aren’t teens in danger of losing their hearing from too loud iPods???
  which is it?

• Charlie
  April 24th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

  (@L)
  Why should the young ever be painted all as criminals simply because they have no legal standing to fight back?
  If you think about it its just a form of discrimination. If it was targeted by any other variable such as race, sexuality or religion it would be cried down; quite rightly. It would also be decried if it was aimed at old people. So aiming it at young people is a horrible idea and as far as I can see probably against human rights.

• Justin
  April 24th, 2008 at 4:07 pm

  If anyone is interested in testing their hearing. This NPR audio clip “apparently” includes the noise that comes from this device. I say apparently because I can’t hear anything.

  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5459251

  (it’s near the beginning so just be patient)

• JamesB
  April 24th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

  I can see why people would want it gone, I have the sound on my phone just for fun and whenever I use it there is usually at least one of my friends who claps their hands over their ears in pain. So I never use it anymore except when it comes up in conversation.

• Sheldon
  April 24th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

  This doesn’t SOLVE anything. It just annoys the teens. It may make them not want to come back, but it could keep other business away that can hear it. And it just makes them congregate in other places, now disgruntled. If that’s not enough to make someone angry, I don’t know what is. And Justin, it’s not in that clip. I can hear the sound that it makes (my friends have the ringtone and we hate it) but I heard nothing from that.

• Sofar
  April 24th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

  Also, why annoy dogs that didn’t do anything?

• Kacie
  April 24th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

  They have one of these devices at a local grocery store. I live in a college town with very few crime issues. You cannot tell me, as someone who is absolutely tortured by this sound every time I go to buy groceries, that it is really necessary as a loitering deterrent. I would think there are other methods less irksome to customers.

• avraamov
  April 24th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

  i think that part in the clip justin posted might be silent. maybe it got compressed out in the streaming process. maybe i’m an old fart.

• foosnark
  April 24th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

  I’m 36 and can hear a 22KHz tone just fine, thanks. This device is only 17KHz.

  I will not shop at places that have this thing installed.

• Lea
  April 24th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

  Helgar’s right. It just pushes them somewhere else that is probably less frequently monitored.
  Oh yeah, and then there’s that health and rights things.

• Lea
  April 24th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

  By the way, I just tried listening to it here:
  http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/
  and couldn’t hear any of the 30 & younger tones.

  And I’m 20.

• Alannah
  April 24th, 2008 at 9:30 pm

  Let take a step back….let’s say that the sound could only be heard by black people. Is it okay now? Then it shouldn’t be okay to do the same thing to those under some arbitrary age requirement.

• ted
  April 24th, 2008 at 11:07 pm

  By that logic, it shouldn’t be okay to prevent children from driving, or teenagers from drinking or smoking.

  Whiners.

• S-r-ex
  April 25th, 2008 at 3:58 am

  I can confirm it’s a nuisance. It was way too popular as a ringtone about two years ago…was like a constant tinnitus…

• Reechard
  April 25th, 2008 at 4:23 am

  This is great. My fist shakin’ hand will get some well needed rest. Damn kids.

• marcnm
  April 25th, 2008 at 8:43 am

  I’m 35 and have Tinnitus (constant ringing) from listening to loud music on headphones when I was younger (and still now even).

  If the Mosquito doesn’t deafen these kids they’ll do it themselves.

  /damn kids
  //get off my lawn

• fsmarch
  April 25th, 2008 at 10:52 am

  Sofar beat me to it, as far as dogs are concerned. They don’t do anything. They don’t hang around making noise late at night. They don’t use the ‘F’ word in every sentance. They don’t leave their trash behind on the sidewalk, within steps of a trash can.

  The teens do, around my condo.

  We call the cops.

• Lore
  April 25th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

  This hurts my ears. If i were to hear it somewhere I’d run like hell… and they’d lose my business.

• Gaby
  April 25th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

  do this things really work in most teenagers nowadays? I think it’ll be more likely to be annoying to people in their late 30’s and up since they probably have a better hearing than most 15 year olds nowadays. All this listening of super low quality mp3’s in iPods with those earbuds that hurt your ears and stuff it’s taking its toll in teenagers.

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