I love a bit of subversion, don’t you?

Posted by Deb on Saturday June 3, 2006 at 3:42 pm

The “Mosquito” is a sound unit which “uses complex high frequency sound to chase away those annoying teenagers!!!” The sound is not generally audible to people over 20, whose hearing is not as acute, but is irritating to teens. The idea is that it can be played in shops and shopping centres to discourage teenage troublemakers from spending time there. Of course there’s some pretty offensive stereotyping there, but it seems they underestimated said teenagers anyway, because the sound was promptly hijacked and turned into a mobile phone ringtone - which allowed pupils to hear their mobile phones ring in class, while teachers remained blissfully ignorant LOL

There was some discussion on Boing Boing about whether a mobile phone’s loudspeaker would actually be able to produce such a high-frequency sound - but as one of the doubters put it, if the teens are making it up:

…these kids have done something even more subversive than creating an adult-proof ringtone: they’ve convinced adults that there’s an inaudible sound that they can all hear.

I like that idea even more than the notion of the sound being turned into a ringtone: The Emperor’s New Clothes for the 21st Century LOL

It seems that the ringtone story is probably true though, because the next twist is that the security company’s website now has an item in its “Latest News” section, which says:

Mosquito TM Ring-tones and Wallpaper:
The Authentic Mosquito ring tone and wallpaper will be available within the next few days.

Brilliant :-D

In: giggle

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2 Comments

Comment by jax
2006-06-03 17:48:56

oh, now that made me lol

 
Comment by Ruth
2006-06-04 21:23:37

And to think I was worried that a whole generation was being scapegoated and victimised by the establishment. I should have saved my energy - it seems to me that they’re entirely on top of the situation…

 

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