Places are starting to think minors are bad for business because they’re more likely to cause disturbances (and often hang around without spending money)
A lot of these businesses are creating curfews for unaccompanied teens after around 2/3pm on Fridays and weekends, banning them on Fridays/weekends altogether, and/or banning them in the afternoon every day of the week (although some of the bans, like at the boardwalk, are after around 8pm). Some are banning them outright.
Another article less Philly centered
"They're being unruly, violating code of conduct, which can include running through the property in large groups, fighting and putting it on TikTok, basically disrupting business and making it uncomfortable for our everyday customers”
Quote from the general manager of the oldest mall in New Jersey
Yeah, loitering laws have been common for a while. Tmk they're mostly used for harassing non-white and homeless people, but teens in general get some harassment too.
This is the first I've heard of outright banning them, though
I remember when I was a teen a news story about malls playing a high pitched sound that old people couldn't hear in order to annoy teens into leaving was going around. Never encountered it myself though.
Widely used in the UK for a while
There are houses I've delivered to that play that sound when you set off a motion sensor. I have no idea what they think it's doing except pissing off everyone in the neighborhood that can hear it.
I'm at the awkward age where I grew up when those became new, but by the time they were really 'a thing,' I had already fucked up my hearing enough to not notice them.
Fuck you store owners.
I remember it being a ring tone that teachers couldn't hear. But every teacher we tried it on could hear it.
I remember people at my hs doing it as a prank through some app in 2020. It worked with our 60 yo grannie math teacher, but some idiot tried it on a 30 yo teacher and got his phone confiscated in the main office.
Yeah and if you think about the fact gen z is the most racially diverse generation, there’s definitely some racial bias tied into ageism here. Gen Z is 50% non-white, and in urban areas especially, kids of color make up the majority
Old white business owners probably see a lot of mostly non-white groups of teens, walking around laughing. Their first instinct is usually that they’re up to something.
A strip mall by the high school in my home town always has kids loitering in a grass corner landscaped area to smoke and chill. The strip mall started playing that high pitched beeping that only youth can hear really loud 24/7 to ward them away.
Almost worse than an outright ban, just treating them like spiders than can be kept away with beeping devices
The poor kids who certainly get brought there by their parents, act up because their head hurts, and then get punished for it. Like, it's got to happen multiple times a day