Would you give your teenager a loaded weapon and then spin him around in circles before telling him to shoot? Of course not. But if you give your teenage driver the keys to the car in one hand and let him hold his cell phone in the other, you are taking a similar risk. Texting and driving is a deadly combination, and while the laws haven’t necessarily caught up to the facts, it is imperative you communicate the dangers of distracted driving with your child.

There are three main ways your teen can be distracted behind the wheel:

1.  Visually, where your teen’s eyes are taken off of the road.

2.  Manually, where your teen’s hands are taken off the steering wheel.

3.  Cognitively, where your teen’s mind is taken off the task of driving.

Texting while driving distracts on all three of these levels. The eyes are flickering back and forth to the cell phone, the fingers are flying over the keypad instead of controlling the wheel, and your child’s thoughts are distracted by the messages they are sending and receiving. Texting while driving is a dangerous — even deadly thing – for anyone to be doing, especially our children.

• Teens are texting at increasing rates. Every month in the Unites States the average cell phone-owning teenager sends and receives more than 2,890 text messages, and the numbers are increasing. Some studies show that as many as 52% of drivers in the United States, ages 18-29, admitted to texting or emailing while driving at least once a month, and as many as 25% doing so regularly.

• Texting while driving can be worse than driving while intoxicated. Drivers who text and drive are 8 times more likely to crash than those who don’t, while drunk drivers are 4 times as likely than sover drivers to crash.

• Texting while driving is an exponential risk for teens. Distracted teens are more than 23 times likely to crash than those who aren’t distracted. One simulator study done at Clemson University found that text messaging caused drivers to leave their lanes 10% more often.

• Teens who text have less brain activity devoted to driving. On average, a text message will take your teen’s eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds. While that might not seem like a long time, it is the equivalent to driving at 55 mph the entire length of a football field. Studies from Carnegie Mellon also show a 37% decrease in brain activity needed for driving when a cell phone is used.

• Teens learn from us. As parents we cannot afford to use our cell phones while driving, especially in the presence of our children. If they see us using our devices, even for talking with a hands-free set, they assume that it is really not that bad. As it is, teenagers often think of themselves as invincible, but we need to set clear and positive examples for concentrated driving.

While the laws around the country and the world catch up to the cold, hard facts, we must make every effort to reduce distracted driving by our teens. Set clear rules, set better examples, and enforce these for everyone in the family. It is not worth the phone call that says your child caused the injury or death of another, or has died himself. No text message is worth any of that.

AUTHOR OVERVIEW

Lisa Shaw Senior Director, Child Online Safety and Protection at SpectorSoft

What do five kids ranging in age from kindergarten to high school, a Harvard MBA and years of protecting kids online get you? It gets you Lisa Shaw, COO of her very busy household, and a Senior Director at SpectorSoft, the number one leader in monitoring and protecting your kids online. She's an expert on the technology and trends that you need to arm yourself with to be the best parent you can be in today’s digital world.

Tags: parenting, teens, texting and driving