A New Ring Tone Teachers Can't Hear
Ring tones can tell a lot about someone. What 17-year-old Tyler Garner’s says about him, you can’t hear.

At least, his parents and teachers can’t.

"It’s just the right frequency so that only people under 20 can hear it", he says, and he’s right.

Students are using a new ring tone to receive messages in class — and many teachers can't even hear the ring.

The ring tone is too high-pitched to be heard by most adults. With it, high schoolers can receive text message alerts on their cell phones without the teacher knowing.

"Make a noise what it sounds like," I ask students listening to the ring soundless to my ears. "Like a test for your ears," they respond: "EEEEEEEEEE."

Kathy Peck of Hearing Education Awareness for Rockers says, "Through noise exposure and the aging process, your hearing starts to fade a little a little."

Humans start losing their hearing ability just before they hit 20. This new ring tone clocks in at 17 kilohertz. That’s the range you have to be a teenager, or a dog, to hear.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

The ring tone is a spin-off of technology that was originally meant to repel teenagers — not help them. A Welsh security company developed the tone to help shopkeepers disperse young people loitering in front of their stores while leaving adults unaffected. The company called their product the "Mosquito."

And now, teens, as they do many times, have found a way to co-opt what was originally meant to thwart them.

Teacher Michael Rosenberg at Balboa High in San Francisco says, "When they get a phone call in class, the adults won’t hear the tone, it’s out of the adult range."

And he’s already figured out a way to get back.

"About every five minutes I’m going to say…’Hey, I heard that. Turn that phone off,' even if it’s playing or not."

Of course, kids could just put their phone on vibrate, but what fun would that be. You couldn’t all laugh at the teacher knowing he or she can’t hear what you can.

(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Author Mike Sugerman
Publication CBS
Date 12 June 2006
Link www.cbs5.com