Here’s an example of that annoying noise that’s supposedly being used to drive teenagers away from stores and other places where they tend to gather and formulate their plans for world domination. It has also been used in commercials. Supposedly, only people under 25 can hear the noise. For the record, our staff can hear it and we think it sounds like that ringing in your ears that happens when people are “talking about you.” Annoying. [Teenager Audio Test via BuzzFeed] (Photo: Karl O’Brien)
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i hear it just fine and i’m 29
This article is a load of hot steamy potatoes. That tone is only like 8 or 10kHz, which is well within the hearing range of most people who don’t have unusual hearing loss.
Your average adult can hear up to 13kHz or so. Your average teenager (before the days of rap music, anyways) can “hear” up to maybe 20kHz, although they wouldn’t be aware they were hearing anything if the frequency was over about 17kHz.
The “teenager tone” would probably be more on the order of 15 or 16kHz – it’s definitely not whatever tone is played in this article’s sample file.
I can hear it..does this mean I’m not old??? Back in the old days of CRT televisions, you could often hear the TV’s sweep oscillator which operated around 18 kHz.
47, and I can still hear it. Faint, but it gives me an instant, piercing headache.
My sister is 15 and she cannot hear it…
Thanks for giving me another excuse to bother her ^_^
Sweet Jesus, I’m 40 and that sound’s still making my skin crawl a minute after hearing it. Whoever came up with that “teens only” crap is selling these stores a bill of goods.
I’m 30 and I can hear it just fine. I feel sorry for the employees in the stores which get scammed by this crap, if I had to listen to that for ten minutes (much less an entire shift) I’d go postal.
I’m 63 with a slight hearing loss and I heard the sound quite clearly.
Oh yes- it sounds like when electronic equipment is on in another room. I could always hear that sound and know someone in the house had their TV on.
Yep. I can hear that. But then last time I had a hearing test I could hear some freqs all the way down to zero dB.
I’m 19 and already have tinnitus, it sounds just like that.
Almost 30 and I can hear it.
Um, ow.
Why did I do that? It just gave me the worst headache.
This has been marketed as the “ringtone that adults cannot hear”.
I don’t know about you but I can hear it just fine – and i even did a frequency hearing test once and I can hear all of those too.
That hurt my brain. The good news is I’m 27 and I can hear it, so at least I’ve got that going for me.
…I think.
aaauuugghhhhh!!!!! that’s downright painful >:{}
note to self, next time DON’T hear the kool-aid
@Rectilinear Propagation: yes. reminded me of those nasty PET computers schools had back in the 80′s
39 and hear it loud and clear. Do I smell bullshite?
The only way you couldn’t hear this sound is if you were DEAD.
Sure keep the teens away, but once the zombie invasion comes, youre SOL.
I’m over 47 and I can hear it.
Is there something wrong with my ears?
I’m 39,and unfortunately I can hear the noise just fine.
I’m 35. I can hear it. It gave me a headache with a little bit of nausea thrown in for good measure. I have disposable income and I’d never shop or spend money at a business where I could hear that noise.
in Hollywood, ive noticed the sound comming from electronic road signs on both la brea and highland avenues just south of Sunset strangely, the one on Highland isnt located very close to a strip mall like the La Brea one is. Yes it is annoying, and I bet some Einstein in ciry council thought it would drive away gangs.
I was going to go on a long lament about how I can’t hear the noise, and I’m getting old since I used to be able to hear very high pitched noises. Then I noticed it’s probably because the network here blocks most audio and video files.
My parents used to have this thing in the garden that emitted a sound that was supposed to keep animals away, but humans wouldn’t be able to hear it. While working in the garden I started getting really annoyed because I could hear the sound it was making. I ended up getting really frustrated and smashing it (it didn’t keep the animals away anyways). My mom thought I was crazy.
quicktime? YUCK.
I’m almost 40, I can hear it. Sounds like the noise a tv makes. I know that I dont hear it the same way my brothers kids hear it. It’s very oppressive on their ears.
It just sounded very low. Annoying though. If I heard that in a store I would leave.
It also made my dog bark.
I’m 28 and could hear it. I played it at work, a co-worker who is 21 could hear it but my supervisor (mid to late 50′s) could not hear it.
And thank GOD I finally found other people who can hear the same sound that TV’s make! I could tell if a TV was on around the corner by that sound and everyone said I was crazy!
@I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.: ME TOO ME TOO! BTW, that only seems to work on standard def CRT TVs. Plasmas don’t give off that sound and neither do HDTVs.
Okay, stores I can maybe understand. But commercials? That’s just all sorts of evil.
I’ll be 30 in 4 months and I could hear it but just barely. It was actually more that I could feel it vibrating my eardrums than actually hearing it. It made me feel kind of nauseous actually.
I’m about a month away from technically not being able to hear that, and let me tell you, that’s an insanely irritating sound. I could swear I’ve heard it in stores before, too. If I did, I dismissed it as something wrong with the sound system, if anything.
My cats can hear it and so can my dogs. None of them like it. I can hear it as well and I concur.
At 44, I can definitely hear it, but I don’t really find it too annoying. I think I’d zone it out after awhile and quit noticing it. Maybe I’m not hearing it as loudly as somebody younger does.
I’m going to be 29 in less than a month and the sound makes my head hurt…a lot.
I got nothing out of it. I’m close to 40, and I also have a family history of hearing problems, so I’m not surprised.
This started in England as a means of deterring kids who loiter outside of businesses. The man invented it because the growing problem of theft and vandalism being perpetrated by kids. If it’s limited to that use, and not as a weapon, I don’t have any problem with it.
How is it any worse than morons who pound bass speakers at 100 decibels, who are using sound as a weapon?
43 years old and I heard it. Now there was one site that I couldn’t hear one of the sounds but durned if I can find it now…
I can’t really hear them, but I can feel it. It’s like a weird pressure on my inner ear, and it ends up giving me a splitting headache afterwords.
The kids the “mosquito” noise is supposed to turn away have in the UK turned it into a ringtone. So they can hear when they’ve got a text or whatever, and their teachers can’t.
It’s just a 15kHz tone, and the test is completely meaningless. The question is not whether you can hear it or not, but HOW LOUD does it need to be for you to hear it.
Obviously people aren’t listening at the same levels, so there are plenty of 15-year-olds not hearing the test, and plenty of old folk who are.
This is what happens when people try to pretend to be audiologists…
I’m 40 and that noise is REALLY annoying. And I’ve been to an Ozzy concert when I was a teen!
@FrankenPC: Actually…Iron Maiden, Metallica, Yes (twice), Def Leppard, Suicidal Tendencies, Anthrax, and a WHOLE lot more.
And that noise is STILL freaking ANNOYING! I hear it in department stores sometime and I can’t figure out where it’s coming from.
Okay, I finally had time to listen to it. 43 and yes, I could hear it.
It sounds a bit like feedback and a bit like the hearing test they used to give us in grade school.
I don’t think I would want to stay in any place that was playing it.
I’m 23 and can hear that clear as day, and at certain volume levels it is excruciating. I can actually feel my jaw tensing up as a result.
There is a food stand in my college cafeteria that has some device which emits a similar noise when it’s on. It’s interesting to see who can hear it (they are clearly irritated) and who is completely oblivious to the sound.
I’m 39, and it’s annoying. Arrrr.
i heard that and it was annoying. i’m 27.
i can hear it and it hurts my ears.
p.s. i’m 37, partially deaf in one ear, have pulsatile tinnitus, and yet… i can hear it.
here in canada, stores will just blare classical music to keep the young’uns away!
OK, so the consensus is: The morans who created this system LIED about age perception.