Can't hear a thing. A younger coworker in my office while I was trying to hear it was squirming and going, "ouch, ouch." I feel so old. Happy Monday!

OK, I could only hear it (very faintly) if I turned it waaaaaay up. Otherwise I couldn't hear it at all. My 7 year old son, though, could hear it fine. Perhaps the differences are due to the type of music? I listened to the cure every now and then, but spent most of my youth listening to the Grateful Dead. Maybe psychedelic jam rock is more damaging to the ears than mope rock? Perhaps Robert Smith and Morrisey are really good for you?

I'm 37 and I have no trouble hearing this time from desktop speakers and mny cellphone. It is quite painful and annoying. I did find it humorous that (young) people have found a beneficial use for a technology designed to be tertrimental to them. Ahh, youth! I also found it extremely humorous that AM news radio stations this morning were "demonstrating" the ringtone on air, since most clock radios (and some base level car stereo speakers) would have trouble generating a 17khz tone. Also according to various sources on the Internet, AM radio is supposedly incapable of transmitting sounds at this level. (most quote around 7 khz for old school mono AM and up to 15khz for stereo/HD AM radio).

After a quick office sample, it seems that all of our sub-30 y/o women can hear it, while most men over 30 could not. At 23, I was one of the few under 30's (of any gender) that couldn't hear it - and I don't even listen to loud music.

I'm 27 and didn't have a problem hearing it. The tone actually sounds a lot like the perpetual ear ringing we'll all have in a few years when iPod-induced tinnitis sets in.

I had to turn up the sound through my headphones to hear it. I normally have the headphone volume low anyway since I can hear just fine at 53. I had to turn up the volume to what would be normally very loud. I wonder if a teen could actually hear their cell phone ring tone if it were in a backpack, for example.

No! But then I am pushing 64 and have constant ringing in my ears (wait while I get the door). No one there. As a kid I was constantly annoied by the sound produced by the fly-back transformer in out TV. Oh Well, we all get there.

I'm 35, male, and have listened to my fair share of ear splitting music in my youth. I had no problem hearing this even at a low volume. When I was younger I could hear a high pitched sound from some TV's that would vary depending on the brightness of the picture. My parents could not hear it and probably thought I was crazy.

Our office seems to have a lot of frequencies in this range (noisy HVAC, electronics, etc.), but at 42 I can make it out once I move to somewhere less noisy.

I'm 32 & male. The first time I played the tone, I couldn't hear it, but realized my laptop sound was at level 3. So I turned up the sound and was able to get a nice headache from the ringtone. But the end result was that I realized how bad my laptop speakers are - which sucks cuz it's a brand new IBM thinkpad.

OK, so they get a ring tone that the teacher can't hear. They pull their phone out in a way that the teacher can't see and they speak at or above 17Khz so that the teacher can't hear them talking on the phone. Cool! I would love to see that in action.

I'm 38, I could hear it fine, as a matter of fact, it sounds eerily familiar to the constant ringing in my ears do to the damage.

I'm 26, and it was loud as day to me. If I turned it down, that stinging pulsating sound in my ears faded a bit, but as soon as I turned it up it was an nightmare. I turned it off, and it was like I could still hear it ringing in my ears. Guess those years I spent Friday and Saturday nights in clubs next to speakers taller than I am didn't do that much harm, eh? :)

OK, so I'm 54 and I hear it just fine, not that I'd want to listen to it. OBTW, I have hearing loss from industrial, agricultural related noise and can't follow conversations in loud groups. I guess they're lucky I'm not their teacher....

At 59 1/2, I can hear it but ONLY if I crank up the volume on my external powered speakers past the midpoint. Aarrrgggh, I can see why people complain of headaches from this! I'm not convinced that listening to load rock music while younger has a necessarily detrimental effect. My oldest son (now 34) had so many large speakers in his car when he was a kid that it let his mother and I know when he was coming from 3 blocks away. He joined the navy and spent 6 years as a sonar-man wherein he could practically identify whale flatulence on the other side of the world. Go figure....

I'm 51 and I could hear it just fine. Good thing since I am a teacher!

I'm 48 and I hear it just fine in spite of the fact that I say "Huh?" enough to drive my wife nuts.

Age 54...still hear it. The only thing I've noticed my aging ears don't hear the scream of cathode ray tubes any more. I can go to electronic stores and look at TVs without being annoyed by them. So there, teenyboppers!

I'm 47 and I can detect the ringtone on headphones but not on the speakers. I can't imagine being to hear them on a cellphone. My 4 year old is covering his ears and asking me to turn off the noise.

I am 32 years old and I can hear it just fine. It does depend on my speaker volume though. As it played, I would turn the volume level up and down. It does begin to get inaudible as the volume level goes down.

I heard it just fine on my pc -- even with the voleume down to only 2 bars on the volume chart. FYI -- I'm 55

I'm 18, and I'll tell you first-hand that no one I know would use something like this; not only is it annoying but it's unnecessary... it would be a lot easier to put your phone on vibrate (as long as you don't leave your phone on a hard surface!)... in addition, most of the time, a lot of students turn their phone's ringer off, and just check it periodically... because if we're in class, we obviously text each other as opposed to talking (in regard to Steve's comment). However, if a student can get away with talking on a phone in class, there's no need for this kind of ringtone anyway!

I hear this obnoxious noise loud and clear. I'm 62, was 2 years in arty in Nam, and worked almost 45 years around jet airliners for UAL. I do have tinnitius in my left ear, but other than that, I guess I'm still good to go.

I'm 59 and it seems quite a normal sound to me. Not a particularly high frequency. I would guess about 4khz with harmonics. This should be heard by any person regardless of age. It should only be a problem as the base (not harmonics) frequency rises to 10Khz or more. A healthy adult of 0-45 has an upper limit of perhaps 12khz at a flat response tailing off to about 8k at more advanced ages. So what's new!?

I'm a 64 year old female, and I could just barely make it out after I turned my sound up to about 10 bars. (And my hearing is decent for my age).

of course i can hear it 54 yrs old i'm not dead either

I can barely hear it, and I am 26, but when I played it, my daughter woke out of a dead sleep screaming "turn it off" SHe is only three. I played it in incriments, and lo and behold she told me to turn it off every time.

Hmm, I'm a 38 year old male and I hear the ringtone just fine with my computer volume set at a moderate level. Good thing for those kids that I'm not a teacher. :-)

Design a tiny, unobtrusive box that flashes a light, (or makes a tone everyone can hear), when it detects sounds in selectable frequency ranges - a teacher can use it as an indicator and then decide what to do about the situation.

It's rubbish, cell phone speakers won't play a frequency that high. I've done the experiments Here: http://londoncokehead.blogspot.com/2006/06/stoopid-kids.html

rubbish Posted by: Londoncokehead Tuesday, June 13, 2006 9:39 PM It's rubbish, cell phone speakers won't play a frequency that high. I've done the experiments ----- I think you'll find they do

It works on some cellies but not on others. On a Nokia N80 or a T-Mobile MDA it's piercing and annoying. On a Motorola Q, it's barely audible, with a background hiss. Cokehead probably doesn't have the right phone. Maybe he sold off the good ones for drugs.

I'm 57 and could hear it quite clearly, but only when turning the volume right, tilting my head slightly to the right!!! Funny how things in the world seem to migrate from what they were intended for in the first place. "An inventor of a high-pitch noise device to deter teenagers from hanging around shops says it could become the latest ringtone craze." http://www.compoundsecurity.co.uk/teenage_control_products.html

No, i couldn't hear it and I'm only just 15! My sister on the other hand... Thanks for giving me a new way to torment her!

Hmmm... is this story true? It kinda sounds stupid... since you can just set your phone on vibrate. And at this pitch, localization would be impossible... so you wouldn't be able to tell whose phone was ringing. I can hear the tones just fine... I do have tinnitus, and the stupid ringtone still cuts through. Although, I've never been able to tell if what I was hearing was tinnitus... or just every single TV on my block (I can hear transformer noise too upto a house away..it's nice to know I'm not the only one.) I didn't even know celfone speakers could go this high!

Well, I turned it on at my dad's office (no one under 30 was in the room) and cranked it up loud enough that it hurt my ears. I was the only one who heard it. Even when I told them to listen for it, they didn't hear it. I'm 22.

I'm 33 and my ears have been beaten by guns, live punk shows, and jackhammers and it's seems loud even when my cpu's speakers are turned down low. Very "Emergency Broadcast" sounding.

I'm 36. Yes I can hear it easily, and it sounds like an old TV set or computer monitor.

I had to max out my speakers, otherwise I couldn't hear a thing! 48 and going deaf, I suppose.

I'm 53 and have no problem hearing it on a relitively low setting. My cat who is 16 hates it and gets nasty when I play it. Introduce cats & dogs to the classroom and there would be no problem with cell phones.

I'm 57 and I can hear it if I turn up the volume...otherwise I just hear something vaguely annoying

I couldn't hear a thing, I'm 49 and have ringing in both ears.

I'm a 50 year old female and I heard it just fine.

I'll turn 46 in three months and have blasted my hearing with KISS, AC/DC and other heavy metal bands for years, though not as much in recent years since my spouse doesn't have an appreciation for my musical tastes, and I can hear it. I had to turn my desktop speakers to about 1/3 volume because I have two PCs on my desk, plus three servers and an third PC about 12 -15 feet behind me, a fan blowing on high (my office is a bit warm) plus there are people in cubicals all around me and that generates a lot of ambient noise. W/O all that, it would be no problem to hear at a lower volume. Personally, it appears to be just another way to separate people from their money. Even if a teacher cannot hear this tone (if a cell phone is in a backpack and several feet from a teacher only Superman could probably hear it) how is a student going to answer it w/o being seen??? The teacher may be deaf, but not blind!! Oh well... as P.T. Barnum use to say, "There's a sucker born every day."

Sure I can hear it. I'm a 46 y/o female and had no problem hearing the piercing sound at all. Didn't even have to turn my PC headphone beyond 2. And yes I have listened to my fair share of rockers and actually use an MP3 player all the time. So I suspect my hearing is a bit damaged. Cheers!

Age 58 here, soon (Aug) to be 59, male, and I can still hear high frequency sounds that drive me nuts while other people (including my spouse) think I'm crazy. Yes, I can hear the ringtone with no problem at normal volume levels on both my PC speakers and cell phone. I played in band and orchestra from middle school through college and have certainly been subjected to loud music (ever had to sit in front of the entire brass section while they are blasting in your ears?).

I am 43, male, and I had to turn all the volumes up on the notebook computer and then route the .mp3 through my 1000 watt stereo system before I could just barely hear it. The first time I played it, my mixer volumes were all set at 33% and the speaker volume was set at about 25%. Perefect for hearing the .wav files play when IM's or e-mails arrive. My 9 dogs all heard it quite well the first time. Imagine their disdain as I gradually raised all the volume controls to 100%. I eventually routed it through my stereosystem and the high-freq speakers finally played it where I could just barely hear it. I think I'll keep that .mp3 for when the dogs start barking at 3 a.m. for no apparent reason. Finally, something I can use to get even with the dogs. (Can you tell who runs this house?) :) Will Enterprise, AL PS I think whoever drew the verification box below drew it in the same freq as the sound on that .mp3. Until I hit Ctrl-A, I didn't see it. PPS The sound is eerily similar to the ringing I have in both ears from Meniere's disease. Although at full volume, the .mp3 was just barely discernible.

ouch, that hurt my ears. im 16 and i can hear it fine.

I'm 45. I had no problem hearing the extremely irritating, nails-on-a-chalkboard-evoking tone. My hearing has been compromised by using too many power tools without hearing protection in my teenage years, leaving me with periodic mild tinnitus. However, this latest attempt at teen exclusivity came through loud and clear to me.

I am a 39 y/o male and I had no problem hearing it.

I'm 46 and can hear it quite well. But then I could always hear high pitched tones. I remember back when TVs were made with vacuum tubes and you had to wait for the TV to warm up before the picture came on. I could hear the tubes warm up, starting as a very high pitched whine which just went higher and higher until the TV came on.

I'm 15. I asked my parents if they could here it. my dad is 41 and my mom is 36. they both could hear it. I could too. Why anyone would want that as a ringtone is beyond me. It is quite painful. But. i don't know. My parent's have very keen hearing. That's why they might be able to hear it.

I listen to it again. and I had it almost and no volume. I heard it loud and clear though.

I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm 54, and I can hear it perfectly clearly; which surprises the heck outta me considering all the painfully loud concerts I've been to in my life.

Well I'm 44 with excellent hearing and I don't hear a thing

Im 17 and I *thought* I could hear it. Apparently, everyone else was hearing something a lot different than I was. I heard a low hum which I couldn't even make out from two yards away, while everyone else could hear qhat they said was 'a high pitched squeal' from 3 rooms away.

I HEARD IT LOUD AND CLEAR AND SO DID 2 OF MY CO- WORKERS, WHO ARE UNDER 40 , NOW EVERYONE THAT I HAD LISTEN TO IT THAT ARE OVER 40 COULD NOT HEAR A THING....

I'm 42 and have slight high frequency hearing loss in my ears from my time in the U.S. Navy. I heard the tone just fine though...

i have a couple people here and we all heard it fine, were all ages between 16 to 25.

I'm a 38 year old female and I heard that ringtone noise loud and clear. It was painful and obnoxious to listen to, so I turned the sound even lower and I could still hear it and it still hurt my ears!

The problem with that question (which was brought up by others) is that you are not thinking like a teen. If I were 15 and wanted a friend to TEXT me a message because I wasn't sure about the answer to something I was being tested on and they did, well I wouldn't want that incoming message tone to be audible to the teacher, and I'm pretty sure that I could manage to sneak a peek at that text message pretty quickly under my desk without being caught.

yes im 14

i iz 15 nd yo eschucha mocho and i heard it loud cleer nd stoopid. it is very hi pitched and deafening ... wo di holl would want a ringtoone dat kocks de holl out of deir ear?

I can hear it loud and clear, and my ears are still ringing after hearing it.

i heard it, even turned down real low. so did my sis(41)and that was playing over my phone to her mobile. guess i have a few good years left . . . for my ears!

Omigsh that is really cool! I can hear it but both my mum and my dad cant!!!

I played the mp3 on my pc at the lowest possible volume on Winamp and could still hear it standing 6 feet away. When I moved further away, I noticed the sensation of the sound was less like me hearing it and more like me feeling it - a fuzzy, piercing feeling at the back of my head. I knew exactly when it stopped looping and when it re-played again. My grandmother couldn't hear it at all though, even when I plugged my ears and turned it full-volume. In response to people who might see this ringtone as obsolete... Well, the thing about having a phone in school, though, is vibrating doesn't always work. You can't keep your phone on you at all times at school cause there's always the possibility of getting caught. Usually, it's necessary to keep the phone hidden in your backpack. Another notable thing I noticed that when I put my phone on vibrate, and had it in my pocket, it actually sounded louder than this mp3 frequency. Less annoying, but definitely more noticable.

THIS IS GOD DAM FUCKIN ANNOYING. CAN I NOT EXPLAIN IT ANY FURTHER! IT SOUNDS SOOOOOO STUPID. Even if ma parents cant hear it, it doesn't matter. IF I LISTEN 2 IT 1 MORE TIME, MY EARS R GONNA FUCKIN BURST. I'm DAT Seriious Here. This ain't no joke.This ringtone is an ASS. Ma phone wil still b on vibrate

I, a 17 year old girl, could not hear the ring tone at all, whereas my 22 year old boyfriend could.

i can hear it just fine it is REALLY annoying.

I am 46 and had no problem hearing this. the eyes are gone but the ears live on!

I heard it just fine through the headphones. It is really high pitched and I cannot see how anyone would want that as their ringtone just so their parents could not hear it.

I am 21 and I heard this horrible ringtone just fine...well enough for it to give me a headache and make my eyes squint. Its ridculous to want to have this ringtone just "adults" cant hear it. Please kids really wanna send secret text messages they will find a way whether it be with this stupid ringtone or any other way

I'm 17 years old and i can hear it fine! But it's the most anoying thinck i've ever heard! I don't thinck that i will ever putt that as my ringtone on class.

I showed this to my mother and she thought I was playing a joke on her, pretending to hear it when I actually couldn't. In the end I had to turn around and pass multiple "tests" telling her when I could hear the tone to finally convince her.

I showed this to my mother and she thought I was playing a joke on her, pretending to hear it when I actually couldn't. In the end I had to turn around and pass multiple "tests" telling her when I could hear the tone to finally convince her.

Someone in my class played that stupid noise. Can this thing make you... A) Have a bad headache B) Want to make you vomit C)Make your eyes go funny D)Make your ears very sensitive to sounds for the rest of the day E)Make you feel plainly weird? Cause I got all those. In fact I have all those right now because I just played that stupid noise! Why would people want to have a ringtone like that!?! It's crazy!

Sorry I found a mistake in my last post. I'm not 13 years old, I'm actually 14. I turned 14 on the 1st of Sep, that's why I made that mistake...Sorry!

am 13 and its the most horrible noise. People at my school have it and its awful

That sound is also made on my TV when it is set on Video without a video in the VCR. I could hear it and I asked my mom if she could hear it and she said no. She thought I was kidding until I got my brothers and sisters to hear it too!! ThenI showed her this and other websites to prove it!!