Keep Tabs on Your Teen Driver with Tattletale Tech

Every time my teenager starts up the car and drives away, I get nervous. Will my 17-year-old daughter drive safely? Will she talk on her cellphone or text her friends while driving? While I can't coach her and monitor her driving habits all the time, technology can let me keep tabs on what's happening inside that car anytime she's driving.

There's good reason to be afraid. Teenage drivers between 16 and 19 years old have twice as many accidents as even slightly older drivers between 20 to 24 years old. Compared to those of us in the 30 to 70-year-old age group, teen drivers have four times more accidents, according to Pediatrics magazine. Making me even more nervous is a new report by the Allstate Foundation finding that teen girl drivers are becoming just as dangerous as boys.

Why are teen drivers involved in so many accidents? Many teens feel invincible, and 25 percent of their accidents involve alcohol. But the main culprit is a shortage of hours behind the wheel, according to clinical psychologist Dale Wisely, who has worked with teens for 27 years. "I tend to think of lack of experience as being the main problem here, not some basic characteristic, like recklessness, that teenagers are supposed to have."

Good lord. This is a Catch-22 situation — my kid's not going to get any experience driving unless she drives. Is there some sort of full-body airbag I can place my daughter inside whenever she's behind the wheel? Well, not yet. What's a parent to do? The extreme reaction is to track your teen's behavior with modern technology. There's no shortage of such gadgetry, and now it's easier than ever to monitor your kid's every move.

Tech to the Rescue
One of the less intrusive methods is to use a gadget such as the $70 Lemur SafeDriver Wireless Vehicle Monitor. The company furnished one of these units for me to test. After I installed its sensor in my car's OBD II diagnostic port (present in every car built since 1996), its password-protected wireless key fob recorded maximum miles per hour, distance driven and detected sudden stops. It worked well, reliably showing the statistics of the latest foray out into that dangerous world.

You can get a lot more drastic than that, though. For instance, cellphone companies such as Sprint, Verizon and AT&T make location surveillance as easy as adding a feature to your kid's cellphone. The Verizon Family Locator service will cost you $10 a month per line, and gives you detailed location updates right to your cellphone or web browser. AT&T's FamilyMap tracks two family members for $10. The best deal is the similar Sprint Family Locator, which is $5 a month and works with up to four phones.

If you're worried about texting or cellphone talking while driving, SMS Replier's Drive Reply is an app that works on Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Android phones (sorry, no iPhone), and sends an automatic reply to any texts or calls when the phone is traveling at speeds faster than 15mph. You might think this can't work too well if the cellphone user is a passenger in a car, bus or train, but the app's maker says "it can recognize if you are a passenger or on public transportation and adapts accordingly." This could be a lifesaver for the constantly texting or cellphone-talking teen.

Cameras in the Car
But those cellphone services don't report any data about driving — they just tell you where your kids are currently hanging out. To get detailed information, you can even take the drastic step of installing cameras in the car, showing a view of the driver's face and the road ahead. American Family Insurance's TeenSafe Driver program, free to American Family Insurance policyholders with teen drivers, uses a camera placed behind the rearview mirror, and if there's a panic stop, racing around corners, jackrabbit starts or a crash, the cameras record 10 seconds before and after that incident and send the footage into the company's Event Analysis Center. Sorry, young teen — you're busted.

If all those surveillance tactics sound like overkill, you can opt for Hotfoot, a service that requires you to place a bumper sticker on your kid's car, displaying a toll-free number to urge other drivers to tattle on your teen's rambunctious driving habits. Shortly after such a complaint is filed, you'll get a text message and email telling you exactly what your little darling was doing out on the road.

Is It Worth It?
Of course, your teenager will have strong objections to any of this eavesdropping. Frankly, I'd rather trust my teen, spot-check her driving, and clearly set ground rules for the use of the family car. But your young driver might be even less competent than his or her peers. In that case, while your display of mistrust toward your teen might be unpleasant, remember that it's your insurance, your car, and your teen's life that's at stake. And, the mere presence of any monitoring device will serve as a tremendously strong deterrent to reckless driving. How about it, readers — is it worth a bit of domestic discord to keep that kid alive?