Don't want your teenage kids using their mobile phone while they drive? Well, hopefully explaining the dangers to them will do the trick. If it doesn't, however, you could always install Scosche's cellCONTROL in your car. The device is activated whenever the vehicle is in motion, and uses a Bluetooth signal to disable calling functions, text messaging, email, app use and internet access on phones within the car.
The trigger device is installed in the vehicle's under-dash OBD-II interface, and reportedly doesn't need to be tended to in any way once it's been installed. Should a disgruntled driver attempt to "tend to" it, however, it will send you a text or email, letting you know that tampering has been attempted.
Welcome as the technology may be, there are a few limitations to cellCONTROL.
Most importantly, although it does work with Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and other popular operating systems, it doesn't work with Apple devices. At least, not yet. Also, in order for it to disable a phone, that phone must first have a Scosche-supplied app installed on it - so, if a friend hands your kid their phone, they can still use it.
Finally, if it detects a hands-free headset, it will allow phone calls to be made using it. Given how studies have shown that phone conversations distract drivers more than the phones themselves do, perhaps that feature should have been left out.
Nonetheless, if you'd like to give cellCONTROL a whirl, it can be purchased from the Scosche website for US$129.95. The company suggests that it could also be used in fleet vehicles, to keep employees off their phones.