Amsterdam city council is to stop using the mosquito – a machine that emits an annoying sound only young people can hear and is used to discourage youngsters from hanging around on the streets.

Mayor Eberhard van der Laan told the Parool newspaper the machine is an ‘undesirable’ and ‘discriminatory’ way of combating the nuisance caused by loitering teenagers. ‘In addition, the city has enough other methods’ to deal with the problem, he said.
There are four mosquito machines in the city, all of which will now be removed.
Last year, the Council of Europe said the machines should be banned because they contravene human rights and effectively treat youngsters as vermin.
The mosquito is used in more than 100 local authority areas in the Netherlands, the paper said.