I have been puzzled by the legality of this device for a while. There was some talk of it breaching human rights (accompanied by the usual scoffing of right-wingers saying what about the rights of victims of crime and ASB...). However I am not aware of any direct legal challenge.
The thing about the Mosquito is that it is not discriminating at all. Generally speaking it affects teenagers more than most, but the frequency range can affect many people into their mid-twenties. Of course, this is even assuming you might think it was okay to target teenagers anyway.
On the music thing, there have been several experiments playing both classical music and muzak in train and bus stations to drive away kids 'hanging around'... And it does seem to 'work'. My own reaction to endless versions of 'pan-pipe classics' however is to want to go postal and kill several random passers-by, so I can imagine it might have rather worse effects on the less self-controlled! I am reminded of John Brunner's masterwork, 'Stand on Zanzibar' in which the dulling effects of consumer society drive some people crazy in this way...
Britain seems to have a very unbalanced attitude to young people - one minute they are the innocent potential victims of all kinds of violence (or if you like, the objects of consumption), the next they are fearsome predators themselves (and imperfect consumers). Our only solution is to either hope they begin to consume 'properly' or to control them in ever more stringent ways. We lack any of the things that traditional societies had to deal with this, like forms of special status and social roles, or symbolic rites of passage.
David.
>-----Original Message-----
>From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of owain jones
>Sent: 26 March 2007 08:44
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: "Teenage control and deterrent products"
>
>
>This story was around about a year or so I would guess. On BBC
>radio news. Maybe a search of the Guardian archive would dig
>it up. It was, as you say, based on high frequency sound.
>
>There was another news story, where, in a town Australia, they
>played really uncool music (B. Manilow) at high volume to
>deter gatherings of youth (at night).
>
>Owain Jones
>
>mobile: 07871 572969
>Home: 01761 472908
>
>Church Farm Cottage
>2 Church Farm Lane
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>
>Research Fellow
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>
>Eating Biodiversity project website
>
>http://www.sogaer.ex.ac.uk/geography/Eating%20Biodiversity/Index.htm
>
>My academic website
>
>http://www.owainjones.org.uk/
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Paterson
>Sent: 26 March 2007 02:12
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: "Teenage control and deterrent products"
>
>critters,
>
>a social worker friend of mine recently attended a conference where
>there was discussion of the control of hooded teens around city
>centres through sonic technologies. i'd heard of riot control
>experiments with huge microwave-producing equipment that makes human
>flesh feel uncomfortable due to heat. but has anyone encountered this
>sound solution before? the company is based here in the UK but it
>says on the website that it sells the products worldwide. my question
>is: how on earth is this legal? is there not EU human rights
>legislation on this? those people who are affected are the least
>likely to complain, as they are not voters and have little
>representation - the frequency of the sound produced is specifically
>that which we tend to lose in older age.
>
>http://www.compoundsecurity.co.uk/index.html
>
>it seems almost like a parody, as the home page has a photo of hooded
>youths holding their ears... (where is Chris Morris these days?)
>
>quote from the website, from the 'product information' page:
>
>> The Mosquito(tm) ultrasonic teenage deterrent is the solution to the
>> eternal problem of unwanted gatherings of youths and teenagers in
>> shopping malls, around shops and anywhere else they are causing
>> problems. The presence of these teenagers discourages genuine
>> shoppers and customers' from coming into your shop, affecting your
>> turnover and profits. Anti social behavior has become the biggest
>> threat to private property over the last decade and there has been
>> no effective deterrent until now.
>>
>> Acclaimed by the Police forces of many areas of the United Kingdom,
>> the Mosquito ultrasonic teenage deterrent has been described as
>> "the most effective tool in our fight against anti social
>> behaviour". Shop keepers around the world have purchased the device
>> to move along unwanted gatherings of teenagers and anti social
>> youths. Railway companies have placed the device to discourage
>> youths from spraying graffiti on their trains and the walls of
>> stations.
>
>apparently the Mosquito is the winner of an Ig Nobel award, and one
>strategy for resistance is pretty inventive:
>
>> It was also turned into a ring tone by enterprising teens who
>> wanted to get phone calls without teachers knowing
>
>hmm...
>
>ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø
>
>Dr. Mark Paterson
>Lecturer in Human Geography
>School of Geography, Archaeology and Earth Resources,
>University of Exeter
>
>http://www.ggy.bris.ac.uk/haptics
>
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