They form one of the biggest threats to humanity that the modern world has ever faced. Their numbers continue to grow with no respite in sight. Together they are a malevolent force, striking fear into the hearts of those who stray into their path of destruction. They are teenagers -- and there's no stopping them.



Or is there?



Long before the term "teen" was coined in the 1950's, and ever since, teenagers have posed a danger to one society or another, mainly in the eyes of those whose own adolescent years are way behind them and who have forgotten what it is like to be driven by hormones and boredom.

What's fun for them could be torture for sensitive adults

For as long as humans have walked the planet, those who inhabit the 12-to-20 age bracket have always been the biggest pains in the collective behind.

Maybe it is because teenagers have consistently been the most awkward, sassy and disrespectful individuals throughout history that adults have started to find ways other than demonizing them and introducing pathetically useless laws to bring them into line. After thousands of years of back talk, maybe it really is time to say enough is enough.



The Mosquito comes to German man's aid

One German man thought so and discovered what he considered to be the ideal solution to the teenage problem.



Axel Torbecke, a 40-year-old from Osnabrück, endured a long-running, disruptive dispute with the local teenage posse. The teens' drunken and abusive behavior and the garbage-strewn public places they left in their wake slowly ground Torbecke down. After trying and failing to make any impact with the group or those responsible for them, he took matters into his own hands.





It's not so funny now, is it teenie?

Enter "The Mosquito" -- not an anti-adolescent superhero but a teenager-dispersal device invented by a Welshman and manufactured by UK company Compound Security Systems.



Working in much the same way as a dog-whistle, the Mosquito emits a high-frequency tone that only teenagers can hear. And instead of making the teen coming running obediently towards you, the piercing noise has the opposite -- and desired -- effect.



Torbecke said adults over the age of 25 cannot hear the tone and so can go about their business happily as tearful teens run for cover around and clutch at their bleeding eardrums.



Actually, Torbecke assures those still able to hear him, the Mosquito is totally painless. Its tones are not intended to inflict injury or pain but are annoying and persistent enough to subtly advise loiterers to move on after about ten minutes. Much like teenagers themselves, come to think of it.



Balancing quiet nights with human rights abuses

"Hello, is that Amnesty International? I'd like to make a complaint..."

The use of the Mosquito has yet to make it onto the agenda of the German government. But in England and Switzerland, where the devices have been widely used, there is some discussion as to whether the Mosquito breaks any human rights regulations. In Switzerland, politicians have gone so far as to make the first applications to ban the use of the Mosquito on these very grounds.



British civil and human rights group Liberty has called the device "discriminatory and degrading" and is concerned that the high-pitch electronic pulse does not differentiate between young people who are engaged in illegal activity and those who are not.



But as history has taught us about dealing with teenagers: when has that ever been a problem?