Kids and Texting

Many parents get their child a cell phone for added convenience and safety, knowing that their child is only one phone call away. In many cases for new drivers, having a cell phone can add an addition driving distraction. The Pew Internet and American Life project based a report on teens and distraced driving. They found that almost 75% of twelve to seventeen year olds own a cell phone. 34% of these admit to texting while driving. A total of 48% of all teens say they were passengers in a car when a driver was texting, and of these, 40% at some point felt that cell phone use compromised their safety or the safety of others.

Some teenagers believe that they have safe strategies to help them text more safely while driving. They think that giving their phone to a friend in the car, only using it while stopped at a red light, or by keeping the phone up near the windshield while texting so they wont be looking down. The only one of those three that will never cause an accident of texting while driving is by giving your phone to a freind while you are driving.