by Mike McNabb
If there is one advantage of being in my forties it is that there will not be a buzzing in my ears at the bus stop tonight.
If you are younger, specifically under 25, and standing near me, your ears may detect a high-pitched whine.
Admittedly, this may be me grumbling about the wait, but more likely it will be the sound of a Mosquito. Not one that flies and bites, but one that emits a high-frequency sound that causes discomfort to young ears.
Dispersing youngsters
The idea is that groups of young people hanging around a bus stop fitted with such a device will readily disperse. Because, as we all know - or at least we soon will if we allow stereotypical attitudes to prevail - groups of young people can only mean one thing: trouble.
So fixated has this nation become about antisocial behaviour that it is starting to use strategies honed in South American jails during the military dictatorships of the 1970s.
Now England's children's commissioner, Sir Al Aynsley-Green, is leading a campaign called Buzz Off to scrap the 3,500 devices used in public places around the country.
Antisocial babies?
Worryingly, Sir Al highlights the fact that the sound can be detected by that most antisocial of groups, babies. One can only imagine the collective cacophony of frightened under-twos as their puzzled parents stand powerless at the bus stop or outside a shop.
Sure, some young people do indulge in antisocial behaviour, as indeed do some adults who are immune to the Mosquito's whine. And those who want to misbehave will simply move out of the sonic range.
But one wonders whether we have lost the plot when we resort to assuming that all young people from birth to early twenties are either misbehaving or are about to.
I don't see what the problem is - they can just put their fingers in their ears can't they? I do it all the time.
My daily train journey is almost always ruined by some yoof (on a particularly bad days there might be several) playing their ipod at at top volume. The sound of muffled music is extremely irritating and so I have no problem with our lovely young people getting a taste of their own medicine.
Thankyo. We are doing a debate against mosquitos and you have helped us alot.