Submitted by crinadmin on
Societies should invest in children and young people rather than drive them away. . . The Mosquito is an instrument that repels children and young people by means of high pitch sound signals. The frequency is that high, that it can only be heard by children and young people. In England children and young people already complained about earaches, headaches and such. The England Commissioner for Children started a campaign against the use of the Mosquito (http://www.pageflakes.com/buzzoffcampaign). It is said that some 3500 Mosquito’s are used in England already. In Flanders too there has been some use of this device, luckily still very exceptional. The Children’s Rights Commissioner wants to avoid the spread of these kinds of techniques and is pleading for a legal ban on such instruments. The office of the Children’s Rights Commissioner states that treating our children and young people with such devices is not to be tolerated. Several children’s rights; as stated in the CRC, could be violated: it does not serve the best interest of children at all (art. 3), the damage and the pain may well constitute a form of violence (art. 19) and the whole category of children and young people are collectively being discriminated (art. 2) based solely on grounds of age. Children and young people are valuable and fully-fledged members of our society, here and now. Still they get more and more excluded and targeted on different fora. Only a minority of young people cause distress and show ‘unwanted’ behaviour and still the whole group pays the price. This approach will never be acceptable for the office of the Children’s Rights Commissioner. We hope things will not get out of hand in Flanders (Belgium) and that the use technical devices like that (‘youth repellents’), will be stopped in time. The use of the Mosquito, and other similar instruments, do not show a humane way of dealing with children and young people in public spaces. Moreover, it is discriminating a certain category of people, based on age and physical development only. Irrespective of the individual behaviour, all children and young people, including babies, are victims. Therefore it can be considered as a form of violence against the whole category. Today it is the Mosquito, tomorrow it will be some other device (‘demonising our children and young people’ as Sir Al Aynsley-Green stated). The office of the Children’s Rights Commissioner wants a legal ban on technical instruments like these, by which children and young people are driven out of our societies. Instead we call on policymakers, on all levels, to invest in children and young people rather that to drive them away! The Children’s Rights Commissioner had sent this message to all members of the Flemish Parliament, some relevant partners and the media.