(BrandenM)
A DC shop on one of the busiest retail strips has installed a “Mosquito” device in order to drive away teenagers who often loiter and fight there. The unit emits an annoying beeep beeep beeep at 17.5 kilohertz, which is at the upper range of audibility for 13-25 year olds. The business owners like it, but one passerby remarked, “It’s classism and ageism. And it’s sad.”
Bonus quote from the device manufacturer: “We have other settings for adults if you have bums hanging around.”
Mosquito noise device at Gallery Place aims to annoy potential troublemakers [Washington Post] (Thanks to VAcooking!)
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I can’t hear any of the versions…WIN!
I can hear up to 18K I think. I have a “dog whistle app” on my EVO. My son loves the app. He sits there and plays with it. I play with it. The sounds don’t bother me and I can hear them. I wouldn’t be bothered by it. But if I went to a store that had one, I’d set my device to 14 or 15k and let that play through my phone and drive everyone else away. Heck, just buy an annoyatron and set it in the store somewhere. Get even if you can.
“I’ll never shop there again.”
Do it! There are more than 300 million people in this country that will.
Businesses calculate risk, cost, value, customer demographics, etc. Your being indignant at being singled out for what you are, a nuisance, is not going to put anybody out of business.
I challenge you to not shop there, and see if they go out of business because you stopped.
I’ll go twice to spite you, and enjoy shopping even more in the absence of your self-righteous sense of entitlement.
As far as I am concerned, people that have a problem with this are just looking for something to whine about.
If you are loitering….you are likely a nuisance…..simply put….dont loiter
Does it have a “wife wants to talk” mode?
Bump it down to 13khz and turn it up…I still can’t hear it.
These things seem a bit beyond annoying- they hurt after awhile for some folks, myself included. If you want kids to stop loitering, go out with a broom and pull the “You youngsters git of my properteh!” line, blaring a sound that irritates and pains some folks is just… fucked up, to be honest.
I’m 35 and I can hear those things. They’re annoying not just for kids, but for those of us who can hear it too.
“The bottom line is that the Mosquito is installed where 13- to 25-year-olds aren’t supposed to be,” Gibson said. “Adults just walk through the sound.”
As a 24 year old with a husband who is almost 25 years old, there is NO PLACE in which we “aren’t supposed to be.” The “bottom line” is that we are “supposed” to be in any public place in which we wish to be.
(This is going on the third page, so no one will read it… but…)
There’s a Harris Teeter in Bristow with the damn mosquito tone and I go out of my way not to shop there as it physically hurts my ears. I’m 26. And I make a damn good salary, too. Fuck ‘em.
As you can see clearly below, it’s not the manufacturer that said the “bum” quote above:
“It drives kids crazy,” said Don Hemingway, vice president for business development at Miracle Recreation Equipment, a Missouri company that uses the Mosquito as part of a larger security device sold to playground owners. “It’s pretty cool stuff. It gets in your head and it’s just annoying, and you just want to get the heck out of there. We have other settings for adults if you have bums hanging around.”
Whatever happened to just playing classical music over the speakers outside? That usually does the trick getting rid of loitering teenagers with nothing better to do – they do that at a couple of subway stations and a few 7-11s I’ve walked by. I personally can hear 17.5kHz, and I’m quite older than 25.
I just played the samples provided on http://www.movingsoundtech.com/ and found that 14 khz (designed for “45 and under”) was the highest I could hear. This device has been proven ineffective over and over. I would also never patronize a business with one of these devices installed.
In addition, there are some tones that I am VERY sensitive to and will even cause me severe headaches or migraines. The tone they set for 60 and under would cause serious pain (beyond that of minor discomfort) if I had to endure that for even a minute or two. I could see lawsuits being filed just because of how painful it can be for some people.
I’m 22, and I can hear frequencies that high. I wouldn’t consider them annoying on their own, though. It’s mostly just the issue of a persistent noise being annoying. The electron guns in the old CRT TVs are a little annoying to me because of the persistence of the sound while watching the TV, not because of pain or anything like that. If I was looking to start trouble, this wouldn’t do a damn thing to stop me.
It mostly just makes the business owner look stupid.
Actually I checked the http://www.movingsoundtech.com/ link that someone provided. I can hear the 17.5kHz but it doesn’t bother me. If I go lower to 16 kHz though, it drives me nuts. On the other hand, anything lower than 15 kHz doesn’t bother me.
I think this demonstrates one case where the device COULD be ineffective. In my case, only the 15 and 16 kHz sounds bother me. The site suggests that it should disperse everyone under a certain age, but I would think it would disperse those people for which the sound is at the extreme end of their hearing range.
I googled “Ringtones only kids can hear” and this site gives you a bunch of different tones at different frequencies… I’m basically deaf as I can only hear up to 14.1kHz…
I guess I’d be a 23 year old who could shop at this store without getting pissed off hah!
http://www.ultrasonic-ringtones.com/
http://theoatmeal.com/quizzes/sound/
If anyone is interested in hearing this sound.
It’s ageist, noise pollution, public nuisance, and I’m sure a few other things. I’d be tempted to get one installed though
If you want to keep 13-25 year olds away, why not just play some music that has intelligible lyrics and a something they use to call a melody.
the argument will be that a retail shop provides public space and hence the freedom of speach and right of assembly will be infringed. get over it. kids loitering in front of your business is nt a good advertisement.
I am in UK and this was ‘big’ news long time ago. noone gave a toss.
Back in the day, the local jewelry store (among others) used a security system that emitted a tone so piercing it made me cover my aching ears. My mom thought I was making it up.
a typical company in this position would simply say “we believe the kids enjoy this sound” and pay a few kids to claim they like it…no different then buying off politicians.
I think that’s ridiculous. I’m 24 and I’ve never loitered or been in a fight in my life. I don’t know what they’re selling but I’d never buy it even if it was the last place on earth to shop. Jerks.
I’m 53 and I can hear the whine at 13KHz, anything above that I just hear a low pitched hum if I turn up the volume. http://www.movingsoundtech.com/
Once some of the guys working for the city here were playing around with a dog whistle after work, the meter readers were carrying them to fend off bad dogs. Someone blew on it and a guy, an EMT, disappeared. They found him laying on the ground behind a truck holding his head. Nobody else heard a thing but it was so painful to the guy it literally knocked him off his feet.
I remember when I was a kid (late 70s) there was an intersection with sonic sensors for the traffic signals… My parents couldn’t believe me when I said I could hear them…
Lol nice pic. The snarl just aint the same without the gold tooth though. At least put some gold nail polish on em or somethin.
Oh, and growing up in Keansburg NJ which is a 1 mile sqaure NJ town with a boardwalk did the same types of things with kids. Cops would hassle you to keep walking even if you were standing outside a store right near the boardwalk with a few friends, it was insane.
One time I was playing some arcade game in the laundry mat where you had to hit the buttons really fast to make the guy confess–it was some cop game ironically. The lady never said a word to me to leave, she just called the cops and they dragged me out right in the middle of the game! I think most cops and business owners just hate kids.
I’d like to say that I don’t have a problem with dispersing large groups of people (young and old) who loiter and cause trouble. I don’t personally want to shop with a bunch of loiterers or teenage kids that have to cut into other people by yelling stuff and embarrassing them just to look cool in front of their friends. This goes for older frat boys who can’t let go of their hey-day high school / college days. Bring on the sounds and security. I’m 27 and I like to shop/eat in peace.
Yeah I never hear those stupid things anyways. A privately owned business can choose who to cater to and in what age group in which to do it. Classism has nothing to do with it, it didn’t say “rich kids only” it said “no kids”. They must have good reason, like kids don’t ever buy anything and break their merchandise, steal, and cause fights. That’s the reason that they cite here. Ageism isn’t a true prejudice in this case, because these kids aren’t buying customers. I’d be pissed though if I went in there as a legit customer (im 23 and I have never been a hoodlum anyways). I also never loiter though.
Oh how I wish only kids could hear them. I hear them just fine, thanks, and I’m 34.
Well, I guess I’m old enough not to hear it. I was there on Saturday.
And yes, it was full of people. Some young, some old There’s a movie theatre there. Of course it’s full of people. If you don’t want that, remove the theatre. And the bowling alley. Sheesh!
Someone should write a rap song with the beep beep beep sound as its main riff. Nelly? Coolio?
Can you hear me NOW?