Kids Be Gone: Noise Deterrent App Keeps Kids at Bay (And Parents Sane?)

If you’ve told the kids 100 times not to interrupt while you work in the home office, maybe it’s time to download a new app that emits a high-frequency pitch that anyone under the age of 25 finds seriously annoying.

Called Kids Be Gone, it works like a teen deterrent device first used by British police to disperse unruly underage crowds by emitting a shrill tone only they can hear, 18.000 hz. (Kids and the under-30 crowd still have sensitive hair cells in their inner ears plus full aural capabilities people gradually lose as they age — try the demo for a similar service after the jump).

But that device costs $1,500 and comes in a speaker-like box, whereas the $0.99 app can be used at short range and is always handy.

This child deterrent app (one of several available on iTunes, such as Teen Torture) was made by someone still young enough to hear it.

Tyler Auten, a senior information technology student at NJIT, developed Kids Be Gone as part of a class on app development. Approved by Apple in March, Auten told USA today he launched the app at no charge for 24 hours and was shocked to see it downloaded by 2,000 users. “It blew my mind,” he says.

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So do just the Mr. Wilsons or Cruella de Villes download Kids Be Gone  — or might it become the last resort of harried parents, too?

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