By Paul Grossinger
NOTE: MMGuardian no longer included a Prevent Text While Driving “Safe Driving” function.
Texting and driving may be on the wane in the near future. In a sign that governments and private individuals are beginning to recognize the threat posed by texting and driving driving, public-private partnerships are beginning to form to directly combat the threat.
This week, Ford and the Orlando Sentinel announced a partnership to provide teens in the Orlando area with new information to change attitudes on texting and driving. The new information will explain the deadly dangers of the practice and seek to reduce teen texting and driving over time. The partnership is one of the first of its kind and could lead to a real change in teen attitudes toward texting and driving.
The Ford effort comes on the heels of progress on new state legislation in Florida to ban texting and driving, a crucial step forward that may come to full fruition this year.
MMGuardian provides parents with the active control they need to balance the outreach and informational programs and state legislation coming into play. New information and state laws will help but they need to work in conjunction with an enforcement tool like MMGuardian to be as effective as possible.