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A ban on “mosquitos”?

Cover ears According to the Council of Europe, the "mosquito", a device that uses a high pitched irritating noise to disperse teenagers and children from shops, should be banned in the UK. The Council maintains that the Mosquito, which is audible only to young people, may breach human rights law.

We have written about the issue before so I merely reiterate the point that there would be enormous outrage if machines were in thousands of shops designed to keep away pensioners or middle-aged people, or something else as arbitrary as age, such as race. And as a commenter said on our last piece, they don't even work on the terms claimed – they can often be heard by, and cause discomfort for, older people too.

When he effectively backed their continued use, Alan Johnson argued in their favour that they are “good at dispersing young people”.  That’s no justification for anything. Cattle prods and water cannons disperse people – it doesn’t make them “good”.

Failure to keep law and order and to educate children to behave properly shouldn’t be papered over with illiberal and borderline-cruel technology.

By Alex Deane

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Home
  • http://ampers.wordpress.com Andrew Ampers Taylor

    Surely someone could tweak them so that if children misbehave, accompanying adults got the full burst of them?
    OK, OK, I know that’s not in the right spirit of libertarianism, but my patience does run thin sometimes.
    Ampers.

  • http://sbml.wordpress.com SadButMadLad

    “there would be enormous outrage if machines were in thousands of shops designed to keep away pensioners or middle-aged people”
    Already happens. It’s called LOUD muzac. And it’s really really irritating and keeps middle-aged people way from some shops frequented by teenagers.

  • http://fuelinjectedmoose.blogspot.com/ Bucko

    I remember they trialed one that everybody could hear. They put it in a subway and a BBC reporter was interviewing people walking through.
    I looked into getting one when they came out but they cost in excess of £400.
    I can understand the libertarian stance on this but kids are the only people who congregate and cause a nuisance.
    If I’ve got noise outside my house and people are sat on my car bonnet, it aint OAPs.
    If I go to the corner shop for a pack of fags and have to get through a noisey obnixious crowd, it aint middle aged people.
    I suppose you can’t tar all with the same brush, though and that is what the mossy does.

  • http://www.deansale.com/sto/sto-credits.php sto credits

    yes，failure to keep law and order and to educate children to behave properly shouldn’t be papered over with illiberal and borderline-cruel technology.

  • http://www.aikagoldsale.com aika gold

    Indeed, the use of high pitched irritating noise to disperse teenagers and children, shops, should be prohibited.

  • DavidNcl

    Is this about the role of the interventionist state interferring in the rights of private property owners to do what they will on their own property?

  • http://alastairs-place.net alastair

    As someone who can hear these blasted things (and I am not a teenager), and even some devices intended to discourage cats and dogs, I’m all for a ban. The noise is really very unpleasant.
    That said, do we need the EU for this? Surely they constitute an unacceptable and deliberate noise nuisance?

  • Rebel Saint

    Classical music has the same effect but with no side effects

  • http://profile.typepad.com/alexdeane Alex Deane