When it comes to teen drivers, too much attention is never enough.

The fact is, traffic fatalities caused by distracted driving are surging, with a good proportion of these involving teenagers. When you consider that teenagers account for more than half of all texting traffic in the world today, it makes sense that at least a fair share of those messages are being sent from behind the wheel of a two-ton plastic, glass and steel automobile.

Given the numbers, it makes sense for parents to pay close attention to everything their teen drivers are doing behind the wheel. Fortunately, since parents can be everywhere at once (no matter what their kids think) there are services designed specifically to help them monitor what their teen driver is doing when they aren’t looking.

These services run the gamut from simplistic to hi-tech, but they all serve the same purpose: letting you know how your teen is driving.

There are GPS devices which can be installed in their vehicles to monitor not only where they are but how fast they are going. These devices can be installed with or without the teens knowledge. Personally, I feel if you let your teen know you are monitoring their driving behavior they are likely to make better decisions behind the wheel. But that’s me.

You can also have video cameras installed inside the cabin of the vehicle to watch, either in real-time, or saved for you to watch it later. Many parents opt for the video cameras inside the vehicle so they can see who their teen is driving with and whether or not they are using their seat belts. It also gives you a birds-eye view of how well your teen is paying attention while they are driving, a very important piece of information to have when you are determining their driving privileges.

Whatever you do to monitor your teen drivers, do something. Doing nothing is like giving them permission to endanger not only their lives, but the life of everyone they share the road with.

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