A new smartphone app helps parents protect the lives of their teens by providing alerts when teens engage in life-threatening use of smartphones while behind the wheel.
Canary – available for iPhones and Android phones – is the first smartphone app that approaches the fatal distracted driving epidemic by enabling parents to monitor teens’ smartphone use in real time, its developer said. Like the historic canary in a coal mine, the Canary app raises an alarm to parents when their teens are doing dangerous things, such as texting while driving, moving at unsafe speeds, traveling outside an area parents have defined as safe or violating curfew.
Parents can receive messages via the app installed on their own phones and by email, with complete details of their teens’ activities – including a list of their call volumes, locations and driving speeds – which Canary logs for later review.
“A teen using a cell phone in a moving car is like a teen carrying a loaded gun. It's that dangerous," said Steve Leight, CEO of 52apps, developer of the Canary app. "Stopping teens from risking their own and others’ lives takes a lot more than pledges or even legislation. This is the app parents have been waiting for.”
In 2010, 3,092 people died in the United States in crashes involving distracted driving. The National Safety Council estimates that at least 24 percent of crashes in 2010 involved drivers talking or texting on cell phones. Canary gives parents a proactive tool to help teens make the safest decisions and avoid tragedies.
“We believe that technology like Canary will be a tool in changing driving behaviors, while giving parents a voice to encourage open communication with their teenagers to ensure they understand the consequences of their actions and that they are making good driving decisions," said Brooke Russell, executive director of the South Carolina Chapter of the National Safety Council.
ABOUT CANARY
- Canary provides immediate alerts to parents when teens:
- Activate their smartphones while traveling faster than 12 mph
- Text while traveling faster than 12 mph
- Talk on the phone while traveling faster than 12 mph
- Exceed speed limits
- Canary also sends alerts when teens travel into an area parents have set as restricted, or outside an area parents have defined as safe
- Canary notifies parents if a teen violates a parent-established curfew
- Canary logs the date, time and location when the above actions occur
- Parents are notified if a teen disables Canary
- Canary doesn’t block use of the phone. Parents are able to contact their teens via Canary-protected phones at any time
- 52apps plans to set aside a portion of all proceeds from the sale of Canary for distracted driving awareness and education programs
AVAILABILITY
- Canary is available for iPhones running iOS version 5.1 or newer and for Android phones running version 2.3.5 or newer
- Links available for download on www.thecanaryproject.com