How to Monitor Your Teenager's Driving

Parents' worries about their teen getting a license and driving are certainly not new, but the technology used to allow a parent to monitor their teen's driving is. Vehicle tracking devices can now provide real-time information to give a parent the location of their teen any time online. While there are legitimate questions regarding a teenagers privacy, and monitoring may not be for every child or parent, there are also parents with legitimate concerns for their child's safety. There are a wide variety of devices which keep track and report a teenagers driving habits, including the vehicle's speed and location. Such driver monitoring devices may also be used by employers, to keep track of an elderly parent or friend, or to locate stolen vehicles. The uses are as varied as the devices themselves, and hopefully this article will provide insight on how to pick the best monitoring device for your teenager.

Instructions

1. 

   Use a bumper-sticker monitoring system. This is the most basic, and probably the least reliable, method for monitoring a driver. We've all seen these bumperstickers on commercial vehicles, but they are also used by parents on their children's cars. While certainly an inexpensive way to monitor your teen, they may also result in false reports and may not relay real-time information.

2. Use a black-box type device or cell phone history to track your teenagers driving. A black box refers to a device that records a vehicles information, such as speed, direction, location, etc. A cell-phone may also be examined for its location history and thus can be used to monitor your child's location. This method provides more accurate information than the bumper-sticker system, but lacks real-time information reported directly to the parent.

3. Use a GPS system that sends information online to monitor your teens driving. This involves real-time technology with a monitoring system that relays data from a GPS in the vehicle directly to the parent's email or cell phone, and the exact location of the vehicle may be monitored online. These are often referred to as GPS tattletale or Real Time Driver Monitoring. These are the most reliable and up to date methods for tracking your teen's driving. They provide the same information as the black box devices, but provide instant information and can be set to send alarms via the internet or cell phone to the parent if the specified geographic boundaries or speeds are violated.

4. Most of these systems can be purchased online or in stores and installation processes and prices vary. Often the GPS monitoring devices are easily installed by the owner or can be done by store staff or car stereo professionals.

Tips & Warnings

• Discuss your safety concerns with your teenager.

• Monitoring devices can possibly lower insurance premiums.

• Use the vehicle monitoring device to locate stolen vehicles or to track employees.

Resources

• More information on ignition interlock devices and breathalyzers