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Disputes between teen drivers and their parents have been popping up all over the news recently. Did you hear about the woman who placed a classified ad to sell the car she’d given her son after she found alcohol under one of the seats?

Of course her son was not pleased, but the woman’s actions were applauded by people all over the country. There is a reason that teens are given some freedoms, but are not totally free from parental control—they simply are not ready to have free reign.

One example of this is the growing number of parents who are using GPS (global positioning system) technology to track the whereabouts of teen drivers. The teen is licensed and allowed to drive, but he or she is not given the freedom to just take the car and go without parents having a clue about their location. Some systems update parents as often as every ten seconds.

While teens feel that their freedom is being curbed or that their parents want to spy on them, they don’t see the dangers of driving while young. And why would they? Many teens are capable and responsible, so why the surveillance?

According to research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, traffic crashes kill more teens than anything else. The GPS technology includes mechanisms to monitor speed, so not only can parents be updated on their child’s location, they can also get information on how fast they are driving. This is not a cure-all for preventing accidents, but some parental intervention may go a long way towards getting some teen drivers to slow down.

Just as the mom who sold her teenage son’s car was applauded, insurance companies are started to reward parents who make use of GPS technology to keep track of younger drivers. Some insurers offer discounts to parents who choose to keep track of their teen’s driving habits.

Come back tomorrow to learn how one family found that this worked to their benefit in more ways than one.

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