Kids Be Gone Ultrasonic Teen Deterrent: Sounds Like Teen Spirit? January 30, 2007
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You might have heard of the teen-repellent noisemaker a store owner employed in his parking lot here in the UK - not to mention being used by kids in class to secretly SMS each other - and now that squealing device that supposedly makes an extremely annoying racket that only teens can hear has found its way to the United States. The device has been named Kids Be Gone, as if paying customers with more disposable income than any generation of youth in history are some kind of plague.
Called by cops in England "the most effective tool in our fight against antisocial behavior," now stateside retailers can also unfairly discriminate against those aged 20 and younger. Because of age-related hearing loss that starts at about age 20, this thing really does sound obnoxious just to those people under that age. But what about babies? And dogs?
How will you know when one of these repellant boxes is installed? Just look for this cheap-looking gray speaker, and teens fleeing the scene. Just what we need: more noise. – Charlie White
Product Page [Kids Be Gone]
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
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Comments
"...parking lot here in the UK"
If you were indeed in the UK, as I am, you would realise we don't call them Parking Lots. They're carparks.
Try again.
I cannot believe the attitude of this article. You've obviously never lived in the UK. If you did, you would understand the menace of wandering gangs of teenagers. They sit ouside shops, menacing those who try to pass by them. The throw things, shout abuse and otherwise torment anyone they see. Aside from that, they are usually drunk, which only makes matters worse.
Kids Be Gone may sound silly to you, but to many of us, it's a necessary tool to fight these Asbos.
Alice wrote - "a necessary tool to fight these Asbos"
Are you even aware of what an ASBO is? The ASBO itself is a peremptory tool against marauding packs of wild eyed teenagers, hopped up on gin and glue.
The issue is that the boxes are indiscriminate, and constitute a noise nuisance. It doesn't sound silly, per se - It sounds like passively aggressive overreaction.
A little less red top knee jerking, and a little more intelligent thought might be in order.
Teenagers? Like hell! I'm almost 30 years old and still hear quite well up to 21kHz.
Actually, I purchased a mosquito repeller (operating freq. about 19kHz), and had to throw it away. It was impossible to sleep with the stuff turned on, hanging on a wall at about 40 feet + a closed door in between.
So you may think driving teenagers away is a great idea, but then you might get surprised at how many older customers are you driving away too.