Kent Council bans 'anti-teen' gadget

Council bans 'anti-teen' gadget  

Kent County Council in south east England has become one of the first in the UK to ban mosquito gadgets from its buildings.

The devices send out high-pitched sounds which can only be heard by young people.

They're used to try and stop groups of young people hanging out around shops and town centres.

But lots of people think they're not a fair way to treat young people, and should be scrapped.

Usually, adults can't hear them, because as you get older your hearing gets worse, meaning you can't hear high-pitched noises as well.

Around 3,500 of them are used across England in shopping centres, parks and shops, to try and stop bad behaviour.

Councillors in Kent brought in the ban after talking to young people, and are now planning to ask the government to ban them altogether.

The Children's Commissioner for England, Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, has launched a campaign to get rid of them, called "Buzz Off".

“These devices are indiscriminate and target all children and young people, including babies, regardless of whether they are behaving or misbehaving,” Sir Al told the BBC. “The use of measures such as these are simply demonising children and young people, creating a dangerous and widening divide between the young and the old.”

He added: "This device is a quick fix. It's not tackling the root of the problem and it's indiscriminate."

The campaign has won the support of human rights groups including Liberty, whose director, Shami Chakrabarti, described it as a "sonic weapon directed against children and young people".

"What type of society uses a low-level sonic weapon on its children? Imagine the outcry if a device was introduced that caused blanket discomfort to people of one race or gender, rather than to our kids," she said.

Meanwhile in Scotland, work to get mosquitoes, sometimes called "teen tormentors", banned, has been under way since last year.