This site recently caught my attention. The company manufactures a product called “The Mosquito”. This product is based on the fact that the youth have a far better hearing acuity than their elders. The device works by emitting a very high-pitched noise that only that fresh, unspoiled organ of Corti can perceive. They justify the production of The Mosquito because, in their words, “The biggest security concern for construction companies today is liability for injuries to unauthorized persons on building sites. This is often the result of kids gaining access to a compound and using it as a play area after work has finished for the day.” In the end they also claim that the product helps control anti-social behavior.
This raises several legitimate (I think!) questions.
Why is there a product targeted at kids as if they were a plague in need of an almost divine intervention? Does the word “education” ever came up in the dictionaries of this product’s developers? What happens when other products and social mores ruin the hearing acuity of the youth? Shouldn’t there be some coordination between environmental authorities, commercial and social institutions in order to assess potentially hazardous products like this? Are we going to see mutual accusations of unfair trade practices...? What about bats, dogs? What about adults with good hearing and no anti-social habits? Are we condemned to having to cope with these mosquitoes? Who’s going to defend us from having to be exposed to products such as this in our daily lives? Plague control companies?
