A few weeks ago I read about a mall in Australia playing Barry Manilow music to discourage teens (it might discourage a few adults, too!) from hanging out in the mall into the wee hours of the night. I've also seen articles on malls playing a high-pitched, irritating tone (indiscernible to adults, but not to babies) to keep teens from loitering. Today, I just read about a more controversial deterrent being used in the UK—pink fluorescent lights. The theory behind it is that teens will not want their acne/bad skin to stand out (the pink lights make skin blemishes more pronounced), so they'll choose new hang outs.

From the mall developer perspective, teens can create a big mess, cluster in large groups (thereby discouraging others from doing more shopping) and get very rowdy (which can quickly turn into fights). There are even some communities where malls are concerned about teen gangs.

On the other side of the debate, teenagers already have enough issues with their self esteem (leading to suicide AND fighting), so is this a good solution? Personally I hope we won't see malls in the US installing pink lights anytime soon. What do you think?