New system lets parents monitor how kids drive

This sounds like a good idea, if you can afford it. There's too much street racing going on these days.

New system lets parents monitor how kids drive
Vehicle's starter can be disabled -- from home

Fiona Anderson
Vancouver Sun
Friday, August 12, 2005

A Vancouver company is making it possible for worried parents who are handing the car keys over to the kids to check out how they are driving, and virtually take away the keys if they don't like what they see.

LockDown Systems Inc. markets a black box, slightly bigger than a cellphone, that is installed in vehicles to track their movements and speed and then transmit this information through the Internet. This enables parents to track their children from the comfort of their computer rooms, anywhere in the world.

The box can also be programmed to call home if certain events happen -- if the car speeds, or goes somewhere it's not allowed to go, for example. Parents can then let their kids know they are watching, call the police to intervene if the car is speeding, or disable the car's starter so that if the engine is turned off, it won't start again.

The idea was born out of a concern about street racing, said Dan Mellor, LockDown vice-president of sales and marketing. It's not meant as a way to spy on children.

"What we're trying to do is trying to make the roads safer . . . and to combat peer pressure," Mellor said in an interview.

It's peer pressure that often gets young drivers to race or otherwise drive dangerously, Mellor said.

"This allows a parent who wants to take ownership of their child to go on the computer and set parameters on how they can have their child's driving habits monitored," Mellor said.

The global positioning system that is used to track the car's movements works throughout North America and can be transmitted to a computer anywhere in the world, Mellor said. This enables him to watch how his 18-year-old son is driving in Ontario. It also lets parents who send their children to school in B.C. keep an eye on them, at least when they are driving.

Bob Wilson, a single dad in Ottawa, has bought the system to keep tabs on his two sons, 19 and 21.

"I can do from home what I used to worry about all the time -- [watch] where my kids were, what they were up to, were they speeding, that kind of stuff," Wilson said.

When he first installed the LockDown, he got a lot of phone calls telling him his sons were speeding or out of bounds. But now the box acts like a conscience, causing the boys to drive safer and so there are a lot fewer calls. The boys now like it too, Wilson said, because they can use the monitoring system as an excuse. Now they can tell their friends that they can't race the car, or go too far, because the vehicle is being monitored.

"Often they didn't want to do these things and peer pressure made them. Now they can use it as an excuse," Wilson said.

That gives him peace of mind.

"I want to make sure my kids are safe," he said.

Anything that may cut down on street racing is a good thing, said Det. Phil Ens of the Vancouver police department. But it will only work if parents follow through.

It's fine for parents to know their children are speeding, but the key is ensuring they do something about it, whether it's calling the police or taking away the keys, Ens said.

Surreptitiously spying on people in cars may be an infringement of privacy, said Jason Gratl, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. But that's easy to get around by getting the consent of everyone in the car, Gratl said. He suggests putting a sticker on the car advising that it is being monitored.

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