The
New Teen Repellent
I
read an article the other day that I thought you might find interesting.
It dealt with teenage crime and antisocial behavior in London,
England and has potential in the States.
Because
of the correlation between the rise of crime and kids having more
free time, it seems some businesses in London have been testing
an innovative way to keep kids from loitering in large groups.
It is widely believed that when large groups of antisocial teenagers
get together they usually are up to no good. This isn’t
proven, but usually a group of glum kids doesn’t lend itself
to a warm and fuzzy feeling for most passersby.
In
an effort to repel large groups of antisocial teenagers and their
deviant behavior, many businesses in England have purchased bright
pink lights to shine in alleyways and street corners by their
properties.
Why
pink, you might ask? How many times have you felt a little insecure
from those florescent lights in your workplace or in department
stores? Florescent lights seem to highlight every blemish or hint
of redness on our faces. Pink light is even worse. It does to
pimples the same thing that blacklight does to teeth: makes them
glow.
The
goal is to embarrass the teenagers
out of the area. They take a common teenage condition like acne
and exploit the fact that kids don’t want to gather in places
where their acne glows like a Christmas light bulb. The article
did point out that it remains to be seen whether this will actually
reduce deviant and antisocial behavior, or whether it’ll
just coax the teens to move to a more secluded location, but officials
who support the experiment are hopeful.
"It
is just one of a range of ways and means of deterring anti-social
behavior we are looking at.” A North Lincolnshire Council
spokesman said. "We are always looking for innovative ways
to tackle anti-social behavior.”
