Teen Pest Control

MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
Shopping malls have long been plagued by anti-social teens loitering around entrances being generally disruptive to mall visitors and shop owners. Malls and local police have tried to prevent these 'hang outs' through a variety of methods, including curfews and ID/age checks at mall entrances. Actions that have only offered temporary respite and no lasting effects. However, this may be a problem of the past, thanks to a small device called the Mosquito.

Howard Stapleton, managing director of Compound Security Systems Ltd, and the inventor of the Mosquito, says the idea first came to him as a child when he was irritated by a high-pitched noise while visiting a factory with his father. Children can hear sounds at higher frequencies than adults do — a condition known as presbycusis.

The Mosquito creates loud pulsating ultra-sonic tones that can only be heard by under 20 year olds. The CSS website says that teenagers are acutely aware of the Mosquito and usually move away from the area within just a couple of minutes.

The BBC reports that the device has been field-tested at the Spar convenience store in Barry, South Wales, where dozens of teenagers used to gather just outside the door being rude and disturbing customers.

Robert Gough, who, with his parents, owns the store, said "On the low end of the scale, it would be intimidating for customers, on the high end, they'd be in the shop fighting, stealing and assaulting the staff."

Stapleton gave him a Mosquito for a free trail.

Gough installed the device without saying anything to the teenagers and they immediately began to complain about it. "They were literally begging me to turn it off." He stood his ground, but avoided confrontations by telling them it was to keep the birds away because of the bird flu epidemic. The kids waited a bit for their friends while covering their ears, then left.

According a C|Net report, Stapleton used his children as guinea pigs and tried a variety of noises and frequencies before settling on a pulsating tone around 16KHz that can be broadcast at 75 decibels, within government safety limits. "I didn't want to make it hurt," Stapleton said. "It just has to nag at them."
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Source
 
Didn't trust this one until I found a story on the Dow Jones verifying.

Apparently, he doesn't value the teen customer more than absolutely everyone else. It'll stop, though, as soon as one of the parents sues him. God knows, you have to allow Johnny to shoplift you blind, lest you scar him emotionally.
 
MrBishop said:
Guess someone never heard of the Teen and Tween purchasing power, eh?
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What they steal outweighs what they pay for usually. What they drive off in other customers completes the negating of their purchasing power IMO.
 
NO, I'm saying that teens don't carry an impressive amount of on-site purchase power. Whether this guy sells a single unit or not is none of my concern. I don't go to malls anyway.
 
I wish the mall theater I worked in had one of those. Most annoying species on the planet: 12-16 year old girls. Second place: 12-16 year old boys.
 
I think it will fail. Hasn't anyone heard about how iPods destroy hearing? If the youth of America can't hear for shit how will an audible device like this work?
 
this is the most ridiculous idea i've heard in a while. i forsee businesses losing sales as a result of this, and i hope that if they support this idea, that they lose a lot of money because that's dumb.
i know that if i realised or suspected a business did not want me around, i would not patronize them and i would discourage others from it also.
 
If you can hear the buzz a tube TV lets off then this thing will annoy the piss out of you. the TV buzz is about 17khz.
 
I think I'd be able to hear it. I hear a whine from my surge protector that nobody else in the house will acknowledge, even the kids. I really doubt this has as much to do with age as hearing sensitivity. Then I would have to agree that the walkman generation probably won't be as affected by this as most.
 
rrfield said:
If you can hear the buzz a tube TV lets off then this thing will annoy the piss out of you. the TV buzz is about 17khz.
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i can definitely hear that noise, a tv could be on rooms away, in the other side of the house, and i know it's on cos i can hear that noise.
 
rrfield said:
If you can hear the buzz a tube TV lets off then this thing will annoy the piss out of you. the TV buzz is about 17khz.
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ash r said:
i can definitely hear that noise, a tv could be on rooms away, in the other side of the house, and i know it's on cos i can hear that noise.
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Didn't realize you got the BeeBeeC in the US. :lloyd:
 
I forsee this turning into an Opti-Grab™ situation. We'll hear about this in 15 years when these "kids" start suing them for losing their hearing. ;)
 
Won't make it that long. Some overprotective (or tort greedy) parent will sue for the "abuse" suffered by their poor little Johnny. Either that, or it will end up being largely used in urban, high crime areas, and it'll be a court case based on the racism inherent in that system.
 
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