Every day in the United States, more than 9 people are
killed and more than 1,060 people are injured in crashes that involve a
distracted driver. According to the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 21 percent of teen drivers involved
in fatal crashes were distracted by cell phones.
For parents concerned about their teen texting and driving,
technology may be the answer. Several
new apps offer the ability to monitor driving behavior or even eliminate cell
phone usage while driving.
Auto insurer Esurance is allowing policyholders to install
an in-car device (free of charge) in their teen’s car that in conjunction with
the Esurance app installed on
the teen’s phone, can limit the use of text, email, app usage and phone calls
while driving—with the exception of 911.
For those with a different insurance provider, there are other
options available.
The Canary app is
installed on a teen’s phone and parents will be alerted whenever their teens
are texting, tweeting, or using Facebook while driving. It can also send an alert when teens are
driving over the speed limit.
For parents wanting to know everything, the mSpy software app will “run in an invisible
mode providing you with across-the board logging features so that you can
remotely track all activity that takes place on the monitored phone.”
The MamaBear
Child Tracker app alerts parents when their teen is speeding.
Rapid
Protect offers a variety of safety tools. “If a user is driving over
certain preset speed, their ability to send and receive a text message is
blocked.”
Mobiflock
"allows parents to block the use of
certain apps and even shut down cell-phone functionality remotely." Parents
can also put mobile apps on a timetable for when they can be used.
Those recommending apps recommend that parents talk to their
teens about the apps rather than simply installing them without prior warning—perhaps
making it a condition of getting a smartphone.
And parents may want to consider using the apps themselves.
"Parents can be some of the worst offenders. My vision
is that an entire family can use this,” said Jani Spede, chief executive of the
Canary Project. “It's a way for everyone
to have more awareness. You measure behavior and then you can change it and
improve it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment