Florida Child Injury Law Blog

Posts Tagged ‘texting’

Information surfaced recently that TASER International, a leading provider in technology solutions, would be unveiling a new platform designed to help parents monitor their children. 

 The product is called PROTECTOR.   It’s an extraordinary toolset that gives parents the ability to monitor  their child or teen’s cell phone usage as well as driving habits. Parents will have the opportunity to manage the contact lists and content of their child’s mobile phone.  The intent is to help parents help their children.   Calls, texts, emails, photos and videos can all be monitored.  Phone functionality can also be limited to stop dangerous distractions while driving.  

 PROTECTOR works on multiple devices and is accessible through smart phones, PC’s Mac’s or smart TV’s.  Permissions and settings can be changed in real time.  Interested parties can call TASER International at (800) 978-2737 or visit their website at www.TASER.com.

Parents are well aware of the popularity of texting.  It’s become a widespread form of communication for teenagers over the last decade.  But when teens attempt to text and drive the results can be disastrous.

 A team of researchers from Eastern Virginia Medical School and Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk studied the actions of 21 teens between the ages of 16 and 18 in a series of simulated driving experiments.

 Teens drove through rural and urban simulated settings in 10-minute time blocks.  First without any distractions and then while text messaging, talking on a cell phone or operating a MP3 music player.

 Donald Lewis, chief of Eastern Virginia Medical School’s Department of Pediatrics said the findings although not surprising were frightening.  The worst results came when the teens were texting.  Mistakes included slowing down dramatically and weaving more than a foot outside their simulated lane.

 The problem appears to be epidemic. AAA recently conducted a national survey and found that 46% of teens send text messages with their cell phones while driving.  At this point, 19 states and the District of Columbia ban texting by all drivers, while 9 others prohibit it by young drivers.