Posted On: September 11, 2008, 9:20 am CDT

Posted By: Stat Guy

The real issue is that teens are not as mentally and emotionally mature as they used to be. My parents went to work at 14, especially to help with WW II, and I moved out on my own at 17. Many kids today stay at home with mom and dad until they are almost 30! they take their time growing up, concentrating on PLAYING at grown up, drinking, smoking, having sex but without any real sense of self accountability, control or responsibility. That is why teens are having a hard time about being able to drive safely: they think it is easy, so they drive while texting, yakking on the phone, and showing off the car to all of their friends; none of them are ready to move on to the next level. But I think that there are many good laws out there already and we should just make them more uniform across the country. No phone, text, no more than one other passenger, earlier curfew. Those who need a car to work or go to school should be limited in the time and radius. As someone said, just tossing the keys to them is not enough parental guidance to make any difference at all....