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Monitor Teen Driving with the MamaBear Driving Monitor App

Teen Speeding

According to the California DMV, “the greatest risk of traffic crashes is among teenage drivers. Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers across the United States.” The tragic death of Fast and Furious star Paul Walker, who lost his life November 30th in a fiery car crash believed to be caused by high-speed driving, has put driving safety in the spotlight. While speeding-related car crashes can happen to any person at any age, teens are perhaps the most at-risk group for car crashes and car deaths.

Just as you give children a world of freedom when you hand them their first smartphone, their world expands even more when you give them the keys to a car. Providing this kind of independence is a proud parenting moment – but is also likely the scariest.

See Also: The Ages at Which Children Receive a Mobile Phone

We like to think – wishfully, perhaps — that our kids are as fearful of the awesome power of “two tons of rolling steel” as we are and therefore drive safely and conscientiously. Realistically, though, teen drivers are beginners, and their lack of experience behind the wheel combined with their undeveloped risk-taking sense can add up to disaster.

The Need to Speed

Whether teens speed to keep up with traffic, because of peer pressure or for the sheer thrill of going fast, recklessly-fast driving can have deadly consequences. According data compiled at TeenDriverSource.org, teen drivers are “more likely than older drivers to speed and to allow shorter headways.” When a teen driver was behind the wheel, speeding was to blame in more than half of the crashes involving fatalities.

Be Aware of Your Kid’s Driving Habits with the MamaBear Driving Monitor App

The MamaBear Family Safety App sends parents notifications about how fast their kids are driving or riding and where.  This unique feature puts  information in the hands of parents and provides kids with freedom to ride with friends or drive themselves but with a little accountability to ensure  safety.

Giving parents the power of knowledge helps prompt discussion for consequence and safety. These necessary conversations can plant a seed of awareness in your teen’s mind that might curb dangerous future behavior, as well as how to stand up for what’s right in the face of peer pressure.

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Comparing Family Safety Apps: MamaBear and Find My Friends

Choosing the right family safety app isn’t easy. We’d like to help you by comparing the features of the MamaBear app with a few other apps out there for Android and iPhone.

In our last comparison, we looked at Life 360. Now let’s check out the similarities and differences of MamaBear to Apple’s iPhone app Find My Friends.

Related: Comparing Family Safety Apps: MamaBear and Life360

Find My Friends is primarily a tracking app. With Find My Friends, users request connection to people they want to view location. Once a friend accepts the request and installs the app, a user can see their friend’s location and vice versa with the option to turn off location sharing.

MamaBear and Find My Friends share a few similarities.  

Users can:  

  • View current location of people
  • Proactively send location. Find My Friends calls it “Notify Friend” and MamaBear calls it “check in.”
  • Set arrival/departure alerts

There are also a few key differences.

Here’s a the breakdown:

  • Who it’s targeting. MamaBear’s emphasis is on family safety, whereas Find My Friends is marketed in part as a social app for use by adults and their friends and companions.
  • Location history.  MamaBear offers a view of historical location points up to 7 days.
  • Message feed.  MamaBear presents all alerts and messages received for up to 7 days.
  • Social media monitoring. MamaBear notifies parents when their child makes a new friend on Facebook, follows someone new on Instagram or uploads a photo, gets tagged or @mentioned, receives a message that includes inappropriate words, bullying language or any other restricted words the parent sets.
  • Driving speed monitoring. MamaBear offers alerts when kids drive or ride over a preset speed limit including how fast and where.
  • Optional location sharing. Find My Friends allows all user to turn off location sharing. Families using MamaBear can’t turn of child logged in location sharing from the app, though the parent’s location sharing is optional.
  • Temporary sharing.  Find my friends offers a group of invited friends to share location for a pre-set timeframe.

There are many great apps that offer a variety of fun and useful features! MamaBear strives to offer parents concerned about their children’s safety peace of mind and comfort.

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Comparing Family Safety Apps: MamaBear and Life360

Mamabear Family Safety AppChoosing the right family safety app isn’t easy. There are a number of  great options on the market today providing parents some peace of mind. MamaBear App and Life360 are two top choices many families consider.  While both apps have similar features when it comes to monitoring a child’s location using a smartphone or other mobile device, there are some key differences between the apps. Let’s discuss what makes MamaBear and Life360 similar and different.

Similarly, the MamaBear and Life360 app offers parents the ability see their children’s current and recent locations. Both apps also allow kids to check in with parents using the app. They also allow parents to set automatic alerts to track when their kids come and go from places they frequently visit (school, soccer practice, friends’ houses, etc.).

Both apps have some key differences as well.

Here’s a breakdown of the ways in which these two Family Safety Apps differ:

– Mamabear offers social media monitoring.  For example, with MamaBear a parent can receive alerts when a child makes a new friend on Facebook, follows someone new or uploads a photo on Instagram, gets tagged or @mentioned in a photo, message or at a location on Facebook or Instagram.  The restricted words list allows parents to be notified to words or phrases that are posted on their child’s Facebook or Instagram page. The list can include inappropriate language or words that may indicate bullying.

Related: Protecting Kids from Internet Stranger Danger

– MamaBear offers driving speed monitoring for teens. Parents receive an alert when their child drives or rides over a preset speed limit that tells them how fast they were going and where they were when they exceeded the preset limit. You can also view the child’s speeding history.

– MamaBear offers a custom child view. Kids can check in with parents with emoticons or send a quick “come get me” or “emergency” notification from a different view with a child profile log in.  Kids can also customize their view of the app with wallpaper selections.

– Life360 offers a premium version along with their free app. The premium version of Life360 comes with access to a 24/7 advisor connecting you to a real person who can direct emergency responders to your location, give you personalized crisis care, access your emergency profile, etc. The premium version of the app also includes stolen phone protection.

– Life360 has the same map view regardless of the family role as a child or parent allowing parents to share their location if they choose. The app also adds crime updates and sex offenders plotted on the map.

More recently, the app added “Circles,”  a feature to create custom groups of people to share location and messages.

Two great family safety apps with many different features filling different needs for families. Choose the right one for your family and let us know how it goes!

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5 Benefits of Using MamaBear to Monitor Teen Driving

driving monitor app

We love it when we receive appreciation for providing a simple solution that allows parents to monitor teen habits and patterns. Teen driving is just one of many reasons parents consider device monitoring. We’ve compiled some of the top reasons families use the MamaBear app. In particular, here’s a short list of the benefits MamaBear families observe when using the app to monitor teen driving.

5. We’re worried

Parents are almost universally worried when our kids first take to the roads. We’re worried about their safety but also excited about the added freedom and responsibility that driving means. More than a few of us use the passenger seat floorboard as imaginary brakes while in the car with our kids, but realize we can’t always be there to pretend to slow down. MamaBear allows parents to monitor teen driving speed from anywhere, making the driving experience easier for both parents and teens.

4. It’s a Conversation Starter

Having information about your kid’s driving speed and whereabouts allows you to have important safety conversations. Using relevant situations about driving too fast can help you lay out the consequences of speeding – and we’re talking about the consequence of seriously hurting someone else or themselves. In addition, knowing where they visited can support discussions about dangerous destinations.

3. Eliminate Side Trips and Unapproved Trips

The GPS monitoring and location alert features of the MamaBear app helps parents monitor teen driving in ways we didn’t expect. Parents get alerts if the child goes to an un-approved location or leaves an approved location outside of the agreed upon schedule. Combined with speed alerts and GPS tracking features, this has helped quite a few MamaBear families know when the kids are taking an unauthorized spin.

2. The Kids Drive More Responsibly

When our kids know we care enough to monitor, they tend to behave a little better. We’ve found that kids drive quite a bit slower when they drive with a monitoring app on board. With the MamaBear app, teens know their parents will get an alert if they exceed a set speed. By combining speed alerts with GPS mapping, kids are typically more cautious behind the wheel.

1. We’re There in an Emergency.

MamaBear makes sure our kids can communicate quickly in the wake of an emergency. Even something as simple as a flat tire can be scary to a new driver. When there’s a fender bender, a flat or a break down, the whole family will be happy for the easy, one button communication MamaBear provides.

If you’re nervous about your teen driving, let the MamaBear app ease your worries.

Download the app for Android phones here.

Download the app for Iphones here.