Submitted by crinadmin on
Fair Play for Children's online Mosquito Poll has now concluded. This is the electronic device which is used to scare away teenagers by emitting a sound at a frequency they can hear but older people can't. The Poll asked whether people felt it should be banned, and was run on the website homepage for some months, in which time the site saw over 10,000 visits. Given that fact, it is telling that so few people even bothered - but the results are also of interest:
Strongly Agree: (194) Agree: (43) Neither: (15) Disagree: (17) Strongly Disagree: (51)
This shows that there is concern. A full article and report are due soon on Fair Play's website, but it does make one sit-up and think that even amongst those sympathetic to children and young people who used the site, few were bothered enough to make their views known. However, if you do want to express your concern, there is still time (until mid May) to sign the Number 10 Petition - even this has attracted only 600 or so signatures but it is past the thresh-hold at which there has to be a response from the UK Government. Here's a link to the site:
Footnote: if this device works on teenagers being more sensitive to such sounds, and being distressed / bothered enough to "move on", has it occurred to the people who tout this that it will have an even more pronounced effect on younger children, and indeed babies who may not be able to tell anyone why they are distressed? Now we read of pink lighting being installed in underpasses in one UK town (story online) to deter teenages because it will show up their spots and embarrass them ...... Does this say something about our society's view of its own children?
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