UK: pleased to not be a teen

I’m thankful that my teen years are way, way behind me. Otherwise, living in UK would be a real pain, literally.

Howard Stapleton’s “Mosquito” emits an ultrasonic sound which can be heard by most kids and teenagers but the high-pitched whine is inaudible to the majority of adults over 30 due to the inevitable deterioration of hearing with age. Following successful trails in a grocery store in South Wales about two years back, there are now an estimated 3,500 deployed nationwide in the fight against young hoods.

Civil liberties outfit Liberty says the Mosquito should “Buzz off.”

Words like “the majority of adults over 30″ conveniently ignores a very large number of people over 30 who can in fact hear the irritating whine. Even for the under-30s, what is the justification for assuming everyone is guilty?

Where a society is driven to take the law in its own hands and uses blunt retaliation against people based on their age, I think it points to a complete breakdown of governance and civilised society. And that is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in UK today.

On the other hand, teens being teens, some have started using the sound as their ringtone so that it is inaudible to troublesome adults like teachers. Have a look at the website and get a hearing test for free!