Aug 21 2009
Parents of teens: please watch this video & share with your teen
Teens, no texting while driving
photo courtesy of Ford Driving Skills for Life
I received this from a friend and absolutely had to share it with you:
As parents of young drivers I though you may find this an interesting contrast.
The California method of stopping teenagers from texting while driving seems to be to make it illegal with a fairly mild penalty and then expect them to not do it.
The UK method is to continue a method of road safety advertising that has worked well for the last 15 years: Scare the crap out of them with TV adverts which if they didn’t count as public service broadcasts would never be allowed on TV.
Warning, it is very graphic. But then that’s the whole point:
It certainly is disturbing and quite honestly, I teared up. It does seem like a great way to show teens a dangerous consequence for something that seems like no big deal (texting while driving). One thing to keep in mind is that the teenage brain is not yet mature. The part of the brain that makes decisions based on long-term thinking versus immediate gratification isn’t mature yet. So, parents be sure to have supportive structures (like turn your phone off before you start the car) in place in the meantime.
For those of you who dared to watch this video, what do you think about it? Do you think it’s an effective tool to deter teens from text driving?
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