A Hounslow police inspector said it would be a "backward step" to ban a controversial device used to stop teens causing trouble on the streets.

This week the children's commissioner for England Sir Al Aynsley-Green called for police and councils to stop using the Mosquito.

The small mobile device, which can be fixed to walls, emits a high-pitched sound that is painful to under 25-year-olds.

Sir Aynsley-Green said: "These devices are indiscriminate and target all children and young people, including babies, regardless of whether they are behaving or misbehaving.

"The use of measures such as these are simply demonising children and young people, creating a dangerous and widening divide between the young and the old."

He said that it did not respect the UN's convention on the Rights of the Child, adding: "This has to end now."

The Buzz Off campaign, which is supported by the commissioner, is encouraging youngsters from across the country affected by the device to give feedback on their thoughts.

Inspector for Heston and Cranford Steven Edwards disagreed, saying that the Mosquito would only be used in Hounslow borough on rare occasions after repeated reports of antisocial behaviour at a specific spot. He said it would then switched off once the youngsters had left.

He said: "It is use is intelligence-led and not indiscriminate.

"The impression people seem to have is that you put it on the wall, you turn it on and you leave it there for ever - that's not true.

"I think it would be a backward step if the ability to use them is taken away. "