Ottawa County Sheriff - Ottawa County Deputy Sheriff Association

A new program from Ford will allow parents another option to impose some restrictions on their children's (or spouses?) driving habits even when they are not around.

MyKey can do three basic things: allow parents to limit a vehicle's top speed to 80 mph and/or the stereo's volume up to 44% of its max, and set a sustaining chime if the seatbelts aren't being used.

The Ford press release on this new feature states: 

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), teens are more likely to take risks such as speeding – a contributing factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes. Teens also are less likely to wear safety belts than older drivers.  

Read more on this story from Autoblog.com

For more options on keeping track of your kids and your car hit the "Read More" link

The Michigan Sheriff's Association's STOPPED program allows parents to sign up online to receive information back from their local Sheriff's Office Deputy if their child is pulled over. 

Parents simply register their vehicle online at the Michigan Sheriff's Association website and a STOPPED sticker is mailed to their home to be placed on the vehicle’s windshield.  It serves as a visible reminder to the young driver to drive safely and responsibly, and that should he or she be pulled over for any reason, the parents will receive a letter regarding the incident. 

The notification feature makes parents aware of any potential problems and enables them to enforce rules they have set regarding teenage driving privileges. Information in the letter includes the time, location, number of passengers, reason for the stop and whether a citation was issued.

Click here to sign up for the program

If you are looking for a more "Big Mother" approach to holding your child accountable for their driving and keeping tabs on where your car, and hopefully your child, is you can check out a new option from Discrete Wireless. This program always you to see in real time the location and speed of your vehicle by logging into to a secure tracking website. The program can also be set to email or text message you if your vehicle goes to an address you have placed off limits, if the vehicle moves during school hours, or if the vehicle reaches a certain speed.

Check out this new offering from Discrete Wireless