The current debate about the use of shops and shopping centres using the mosquito, a high pitched sound only audible to most under 25 year olds seems to be getting some civil libertarians hot under the collar.
Personally I think it is entirely reasonable to expect that groups of youths should not be stood togather intimidating people in shopping centres. When I was a teenager I didn't feel the need to do it, and I didn't use the excuse of a lack of things to do as an excuse to commit random acts of violence and vandalism around where I lived. Why is that ? Because I was brought up well. My parents cared about where I had been and I know they would have taken very seriously any "pratting around".
Now if they could come up with a device that could be set off to urt the ears of bad parents, then that would be something worth investing in.
Take for example the table sat near us in Frankiie and Benny's in Norwich last night. A table with two sets of parents and two pairs of kids was sat near to us. The kids, aged around 8 to 13 years of age, were acting up, showing off, shouting, and generally lacking in respect for other tables. What did the parents do ? They split their table off and moved it about a foot further away from thir kids so they could have a little more quiet. Not once did they say anything to their kids by way of getting them to act responsibly. Only when the children started spitting fizzy drinks at each other through straws did a rather lame "now cut that out" eminate from one of the parents.
Any decent parent would have let their kids know in no uncertain terms that there behaviour was out of order right from the start and would have done something about it, not moved away and ignored it.
So whilst civil liberties groups might object to the mosquito, whilst we have useless parents around who teach their kids no responsibilities to go with their rights, we will need to continue to have the options available to disperse kids.
I'm sure many people would remember a few decades ago we used to ahve something that would disperse kids easily. The threat of your parents knowing what you were up to or a policeman who would "cuff" you round the ear. In many ways the mosquito is just taking their place.
Personally I think it is entirely reasonable to expect that groups of youths should not be stood togather intimidating people in shopping centres. When I was a teenager I didn't feel the need to do it, and I didn't use the excuse of a lack of things to do as an excuse to commit random acts of violence and vandalism around where I lived. Why is that ? Because I was brought up well. My parents cared about where I had been and I know they would have taken very seriously any "pratting around".
Now if they could come up with a device that could be set off to urt the ears of bad parents, then that would be something worth investing in.
Take for example the table sat near us in Frankiie and Benny's in Norwich last night. A table with two sets of parents and two pairs of kids was sat near to us. The kids, aged around 8 to 13 years of age, were acting up, showing off, shouting, and generally lacking in respect for other tables. What did the parents do ? They split their table off and moved it about a foot further away from thir kids so they could have a little more quiet. Not once did they say anything to their kids by way of getting them to act responsibly. Only when the children started spitting fizzy drinks at each other through straws did a rather lame "now cut that out" eminate from one of the parents.
Any decent parent would have let their kids know in no uncertain terms that there behaviour was out of order right from the start and would have done something about it, not moved away and ignored it.
So whilst civil liberties groups might object to the mosquito, whilst we have useless parents around who teach their kids no responsibilities to go with their rights, we will need to continue to have the options available to disperse kids.
I'm sure many people would remember a few decades ago we used to ahve something that would disperse kids easily. The threat of your parents knowing what you were up to or a policeman who would "cuff" you round the ear. In many ways the mosquito is just taking their place.
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