Newest Source of Teen Ire: Webcams in Their Cars

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Latest Parenting Tool: Car Cameras

In an effort to reduce teen car crashes Maryland parents are recording their kids driving. A look at what happens when kids stop driving and start text messaging.

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On a recent night in their home in Lusby, the Richardsons sat down to review some newly uploaded footage.

"Now, Jennifer does not have her seatbelt on," Ken Richardson told his daughter sternly, pointing at the screen to a girl obviously unbuckled in the passenger seat.

"I usually don't make her wear one, but, yeah," Stacie Richardson mumbled, averting her gaze from the computer.

In the month or so since the camera was installed, Stacie has not been caught on camera doing anything too bad. Sure, dad has gotten to see her doing that teenage "gangster lean" -- driving with her seat pushed back, music blaring and one hand on the wheel, he said. And Jennifer isn't the only passenger he's spotted not wearing a seat belt.

But the camera has been a source of household division since Ken Richardson told his daughter it would be installed, whether she liked it or not.

Richardson has tried every possible angle to convince his daughter that the camera is a good idea. He has tried telling her she could earn new driving privileges by avoiding major incidents. He has appealed to her sense of benevolence, telling her that being a part of the study could save others' lives. And he has tried telling her that when she gets older, she'll want the same kind of device for her kids.

"Whatever. I don't want to hear it," Stacie said, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.

The limited research conducted on DriveCam elsewhere in the country seems to support dad.

McGehee, the University of Iowa researcher, tracked 25 new drivers using the camera and a feedback system for more than a year starting in 2006. The six people that McGehee classified as "high-frequency drivers," meaning they triggered the camera frequently early on, did so 86 percent less after using the DriveCam and McGehee's version of the feedback system. The study was funded by American Family Insurance, which uses the cameras as a marketing tool, offering them free to the young drivers it insures.

"This one . . . has shown an effect that is much more dramatic than some of the other technologies that we've developed," McGehee said, adding that another study in Minneapolis this year yielded similar overall results.

The cameras in Southern Maryland typically cost $900 for the hardware, installation and a year of service, Carpenter said. After the first year, the service costs $30 a month, he said.

As part of the Maryland study, supported by a $170,000 grant through the State Highway Administration, the cameras and a year of service are available free to more than 200 Southern Maryland families. Researchers from the University of Maryland are attempting to determine how effective they are in curbing risky driving. Only a few weeks into the year-long study, they have yet to record any results.