A committee of MEPs voted unanimously for a Europe-wide ban on the marketing, sale and use of the Mosquito acoustic youth dispersal devices in all public places.

They said the devices treat young people “as if they were unwanted birds or pests” and that their use was tantamount to degrading treatment prohibited by the European Convention on Human Rights.

The committee said the devices also constituted a “disproportionate interference with the right to respect for one’s private life, including the right to respect for one’s physical integrity”.

The devices could even contravene the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular regarding health and safety.

It sends out a powerful acoustic signal audible to almost all young people under the age of 20 years but barely noticeable to anyone over the age of 25.

Teenagers exposed to this type of noise are forced to leave the immediate area.

The committee called for further medical tests on the effects of the devices, although there is no evidence of health risks associated with this device.

It said: “It is not known, for instance, what impact high-frequency noise has on unborn children. The ‘precautionary principle’ must therefore apply.”

The “Mosquito” device is currently marketed and used in the United Kingdom, where 3,500 devices are deployed, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

It sends out a powerful acoustic signal audible to almost all young people under the age of 20 years but barely noticeable to anyone over the age of 25. MEPs will discuss further the proposal in June.

Last month, Sir Al Aynsley Green, the children’s commissioner, said the UK’s poor treatment of youngsters had brought Britain into disrepute overseas. A powerful symbol of the country’s low opinion of children was the Mosquito, he added.