A few months back there were some stories in the press about business owners in the U.K. who were looking for a way to discourage teenagers from loitering outside their shops. A solution was presented in the form of "The Mosquito", a device that works by emitting high-frequency tones under the assumption that teenagers will be able to hear and be annoyed by it, while not bothering older patrons (due to the fact that the ability to hear high frequency sounds deteriorates with age).

Recently, I've seen several news outlets commenting that teenagers are now using this sound as a ringtone for their phone so that they can receive calls while in class without the teacher realizing. I don't think I've read a version of this story yet that has cited a specific school in which this is occurring so I suspect that the whole thing is just the fanciful imaginings of a reporter who needed something to print. The news media has never been real hip to what's going on with teens, why should they start now. After all, I know teenagers aren't always that bright, but I think they are smart enough to realize that they are bound to have a teacher under the age of thirty or with excellent hearing. Besides, setting the phone to silent or vibrate accomplishes basically the same thing.

Regardless of the veracity of the story, I'm more interested in the sound itself. More specifically, I am curious how many of you can actually hear it. Here is a link to the sound as posted by the NY Times. If you can hear it, it will sound like exactly what it is: an annoying high-pitched tone, something like the Emergency Broadcast Signal. Post your results in the comments, and, if you feel brave, indicate whether or not you are younger or older than thirty.