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Teen Tracking Systems
Spying on Your Teens
By Laura Cone
When Peggy Stein of Towson, Md., went to Ocean City as part of senior week in 1980, her parents simply had to trust her to stay out of trouble. With advances in technology that allow parents to track their teenagers through their cellular phones or in-vehicle global positioning systems (GPS), parents such as Stein might not know what their teenagers are doing, but they know where they are. "I have a good child, but she does have a wild steak like her mother [when] I was a teenager," Stein says. "I know exactly what I did. You build trust. I trust my daughter, but there is peer pressure."
Stein, who owns SignalTrac, an in-vehicle GPS, with Vicki Lewis, says she felt secure allowing her 18-year-old daughter Kelly to go to Ocean City, because she received a report of the position of her car and real-time alerts if her daughter entered or left a certain area. Stein plans to keep tabs on her other teenager, Caitlin, 13, when she is old enough to drive.
"Kelly went to OC, and she took her car because a lot of kids were going down," Stein says. "I know it's parked outside their condo they are staying at. They have free bus service for senior week. I told her do not drive the car while you are down at Ocean City, only to get groceries and park it. That's what she has done."
Some of Stein's clients use SignalTrac because they are hoping to lower their car insurance rates and want to keep their teenagers accountable for their driving skills.
