‘Secret alarm becomes dance track’

The Mosquito sound has been mixed (sort of) into a dance track:
“…the sound is being used in a dance track, Buzzin’, with secret melodies only young ears can hear.
…
Simon Morris from Compound Security said: “Following the success of the ringtone, a lot of people were asking us to do a bit more, so we [...]

Shaping behaviour at the Design Council

Photo by Kate Andrews
I’ve blogged before mentioning the work of the UK Design Council’s RED research arm, which applies ‘design thinking’ to redevelop and create public services appropriate for societal changes right now and in the years to come. The previous post was specifically about Jennie Winhall’s ‘Is design political?’ essay, but I’ve kept in [...]

Spiked: When did ‘hanging around’ become a social problem?

Josie Appleton, at the always-interesting Spiked, takes a look at the increasing systemic hostility towards ‘young people in public places’ in the UK: ‘When did ‘hanging around’ become a social problem?’
As well as the Mosquito, much covered on this site (all posts; try out high frequency sounds for yourself), the article mentions the use [...]

Nice attitude

Someone from the UK just found this site by searching for “device to stop young people congregating” using a mobile phone provider’s search engine.
Now, I know, I know, there may be an important backstory behind that person’s search. Some people apparently really do have problems with kids intimidating them (e.g. see these comments on the [...]

High frequency ringtone download

High frequencies being tested in the urban badlands: see, no teenagers here!
A lot of people find this site through searching for something along the lines of ‘Mosquito high frequency anti-teenager ringtone’, and are presumably disappointed when they find that there is no such ringtone to download, even if just because they’d like to test it [...]

Another possible avenue for the Mosquito

Hot on the heels of the news that Cooper-Menvier/Fulleon is to take on global manufacture and distribution of the Mosquito, my server logs show that someone found this site through looking for mosquito download mobile phone free high frequency.
Now, he or she might simply have been looking for a ringtone that sounded like a mosquito. [...]

An astounding quote on the Mosquito

Following the update on the Mosquito story, i.e. that it is to be switched off at a shop in Newport after questions were raised about human rights issues, the BBC story ‘Anti-gang noise box switched off’ carries an astounding quote from Compound Security, the manufacturers:

Telegraph – Safety fear swats store’s Mosquito

From today’s Daily Telegraph: ‘Safety fear swats store’s Mosquito’.
“A supermarket has been ordered to switch off a device aimed at combating anti-social behaviour because of concerns about human rights and health and safety…

Architectures of control that actually endanger life

Anti-teenager sound weapon in Wales

Boing Boing and MAKE note a New York Times story about the Mosquito, a speaker unit produced by Compound Security which produces a high frequency sound (less audible to older people) in order to drive away teenagers hanging around in front of shops.