the Mosquito

A commercial anti-loitering device that emits a continuous high-frequency tone, around 17.4 kHz, loud enough to be unpleasant and pitched high enough that older adults are less likely to hear it. Invented by Howard Stapleton and first trialled at a shop in Barry, Wales, in November 2005. Sold with a stated range of 50 to 70 feet at 85 dB, 100 dB maximum. It won an Ig Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

It belongs in this glossary for one reason. A sound that some people hear and others standing beside them do not requires no exotic technology whatsoever. It is a purchasable product, legal in most jurisdictions, and it has been deployed on public streets in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Belgium, France and Ireland.

The vendor’s age claim should be read carefully. Marketing describes it as affecting roughly ages 13 to 25, but hearing loss at these frequencies is a gradual slope rather than a cutoff — see presbycusis.

Documented real-world example: in 2010 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation 1930, calling on governments to ban the device and citing Articles 3, 8 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Articles 2, 3, 15, 19 and 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In 2016 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child explicitly called on the United Kingdom to ban its use; the Home Office declined. A French court at Saint-Brieuc prohibited local use in 2008 and awarded damages, and Sheffield City Council barred it from council property in 2011. No national statutory ban has been enacted anywhere. In 2006 schoolchildren repurposed the tone as the “Teen Buzz” ringtone, inaudible to their teachers.

Related terms: presbycusis, parametric array, no-touch torture, psychological smothering

Sources: The Mosquito — Wikipedia; Recommendation 1978 (2011), citing Recommendation 1930 — Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; Mosquito devices — Children & Young People’s Commissioner Scotland; Home Office rejects call for ban — BBC News