As 15-year-old Eddie Holder sprinted from his apartment for school one recent morning, he held his hand to one ear to block out a shrill, piercing noise.The sound was coming from a wall-mounted box, but not everyone can hear it. The device, called the Mosquito, is audible only to teens and young adults and was installed outside the building to drive away loiterers.The gadget made its debut in the United States last year after infuriating civil liberties groups when it was first sold overseas. Already, almost 1,000 units have been sold in the U.S. and Canada, according to Daniel Santell, the North America importer of the device under the company name Kids Be Gone.To Eddie, it's tormenting."It's horrible, loud and irritating," he said. "I have to hurry out of the building because it's so annoying. It's this screeching sound that you have to get away from, or it will drive you crazy."The high-frequency sound has been likened to fingernails dragged across a chalkboard or a pesky mosquito buzzing in your ear. It can be heard by most people in their teens and early 20s who still have sensitive hair cells in their inner ears. Whether you can hear the noise depends on how much your hearing has deteriorated - how loud you blast your iPod, for example, could potentially affect your ability to detect it.
Sonic weapons fired at child surfersCommunity policing in actionBy Mark Ballaed: Thursday, 26 June 2008, 5:42 PMClick here to find out more!POLICE HAVE TARGETED sonic weapons at school kids on holiday at a surf beach in Cornwall. They have installed 'Mosquito' devices at the holiday and surf resort Polzeath to disperse school children who bother peevish locals.A symptom of the resort's growing popularity has been an increase in the numbers of holidaymakers. Some of them drink and stay up late making holiday noises. Sometimes there are fights. Cornish police told the Guardian newspaper that the Mosquito devices had been installed to stop holidaymakers congregating in groups.The Mosquito emits a high-pitched noise that is particularly distressing to young people. The sound is usually out of the range of older peoples' hearing. Kent and Edinburgh councils have already banned the Mosquito. But Compound Security Systems, which makes the devices, told The Scotsman last week that a council ban wouldn't prevent them from selling the sonic weapons to shop keepers and householders, it would only prevent them from being used on council property.An estimated 3,500 of the weapons have already been installed across England. There is nevertheless a move to have them banned in Brussels. Opponents say they indiscriminately attack all children in their vicinity, could be harmful to younger children, are an infringement of rights, and are a brutish substitute for civic engagement.
