Posted on 12/09/2004 7:21:59 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BRADENTON, Fla. - Retired Gen. Tommy Franks has signed on to be the spokesman for a company that uses global positioning system technology in teens' cell phones to let parents know how fast they're driving.
Franks will be the official face of Teen Arrive Alive. The organization aims to get teens to carry a cell phone containing a GPS chip that sends out regular signals letting parents know where they are and how fast they're going.
If a certain predetermined speed limit is passed, an alarm will go off in the cell phone and parents will be notified.
A bumper sticker on the teen's car enables drivers to report reckless behavior. Both the teen and his or her parents are then notified by phone or e-mail that a negative driving report has come in.
"As a parent, I know it is not only my right, but also my responsibility to keep an eye on and protect my children," Franks said. "If I know where my kids are, where they're going, how they're driving and how fast they're traveling, I can counsel them before an accident occurs. I can help protect them."
As commander of U.S. Central Command based at nearby MacDill Air Force, Franks directed the invasion of Iraq (news - web sites).
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On the Net:
http://teenarrivealive.com/
Retired Gen. Tommy Franks is interviewed by the Associated Press in Washington, on Nov. 9, 2004. Franks has signed on to be the spokesman for a company that uses global positioning system technology in teens' cell phones to let parents know how fast they're driving.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
There goes any chance of ever being elected President, imo. ;-)
If things keep on this vector, how long before privacy becomes a privilege instead of a right?
I would put my phone on something REALLY fast, just for laughs.
It will happen the same way driving became a privilege instead of a right. Generational laziness.
It's too bad Tommy Franks isn't heading up Homeland Security...
imo
It's time spirit of the Constitution was articulated in the language of today. Privacy is privacy.
Calling all conservative thinkers!
Years and years spent in serving his country---of vowing to defend the Constitution---and Gen. Franks just flat out chooses to p*ss all over what he's so solemly defended all these years.
How sad.
There's one smoking gun that keeps showing up in all sorts of assaults of privacy and liberty: the insurance industry... this is the juggernaut.
Yeah me too... Like a trash deposal unit.
The program includes is a reward system for a good driving record that offers the teen participants stuff that appeals to their age group.
Its a personal choice. But in our experience: your kid can be the best driver in the state, but once he/she gets inside their friends car, there isn't a dern thing you can do about it.
Most schools have dropped their driver-ed programs....the speed limits in most states are 65 MPH (or higher?) We have 15 year olds out on the roads going 80 MPH with little to no serious driver training.
We paid out of pocket to have our daughter take Drivers ED so that she would have every advantage in becoming a good driver. It didn't help her when she was a passenger in a friends car. (and by Gods grace she survived) Got teens with drivers licenses? Pray....
Couldn't a kid confound this system by turning off the phone or removing the battery?
Sad, but true. Just yesterday, immediately after school, a local high school student lost control of his speeding pickup, which rolled and smashed into a tree. Both he and his passenger were "ejected from the vehicle" (no seat belts worn) -- and the passenger died. The driver was airlifted, and is still in critical condition.
We might as well face the facts: if kids behaved responsibly at sixteen years old, items like this GPS scheme would have no market. Sadly, maturity takes far longer than sixteen years to develop...
They could, but the parents would know the device was turned off, and the kid does have to come home sometime.
Sad story TX..the statistics are awful. I would not protest if the driving age was raised by a year. (especially if they are no longer required to have drivers ed).
Remember: way back when the permit age was set at 15 (in many states), the speed limit was almost half what it is today and most teens drove $200 clunkers (if they even HAD a car). The speed limits go up, but the driving age and requirements don't. Our daughter was spared (and her friend the driver), but it still makes me sick to my stomach when I hear of teens dying by the numbers in mangled cars.
The truly tragic part was that the dead boy's mother teaches at the same school (as does my daughter). On her way home from school, she arrived at the scene of the wreck while her son's body was still lying there. The school is very small; the entire student body is trumatized.
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