As a teenage driver, I have a lot of information thrown at me about texting and driving.  The emerging threat is illegal in thirty-nine states, and five states place texting restrictions only on young drivers.  Teens are constantly being given seminars and speeches on the dangers of texting and driving to ourselves and those with whom we share the road.  I am terrified of driving high speeds anyways, so the idea of texting while doing so is pretty much out of the question as of now. This isn’t necessarily the case for older teen drivers, but most of my peers feels similarly.

 What I have noticed is that many adults have no problem texting while driving.  Both of my parents and older brother are guilty of this.  Friends have observed the same thing with their parents.  They’re not texting for very long, but it is just interesting that the adults I know are more open to this than the teens, and the adults are the ones who are pushing the safe teen driving seminars and speeches on us.

 I completely agree with being directly shown scenarios of texting gone wrong.  All the safe teen driving presentations have made a significant impression in the past years, and improvements have been made.  Many teenagers are so afraid of being the one on the “this is the text I was sending when I killed three children” commercials that they take extra precautions to resist the temptation.

 Despite the information we are given on the issue, many teens still do text and drive, but the numbers are increasingly going down.  Interestingly, as teenagers become better about not texting and driving, it is the adults who seem to get worse.

 A recent AT&T study showed that while forty-three percent of teens admit to texting while behind the wheel, forty-nine percent of adults do.  Of the forty-nine percent, sixty percent say they never would have done so three years prior.  Three years ago is when the AT&T “It Can Wait” campaign was first introduced.  Additionally ninety-eight percent of the adult drivers know that using mobile devices while driving is wrong.

 This is likely because adults know it is wrong, but assume that their age and driving experience exempts them from the texting and driving risks.

 Between adults and adolescents there is not a sole guilty party.  Texting and driving is a safety threat and should be handled as a widespread issue, not a teenage stereotype.