For the commenters above, im not sure what the legal age to drive is in your country. In the UK the legal age to drive is 18. Its also my opinion that anyone younger wouldn't be mature enough to drive anyway, let alone drive while using a mobile. Oh yeah, the UK already has a law that bans using a mobile/cell phone at the wheel. Im not sure exactly what the maximum penalty is, but I think its involves more that just a fine.

so that the parents can have more "peace of mind".

Perhaps paying for advanced driving lessons would be a better way to spend the money?

Or they could just by the kid an earpiece.

HTC Touch HD has an "busy-text" feature, where the phone will auto text back the person who is calling you with a message like "I'm busy, will call you asap". HTC slipped up by making the message require the user pressing a tiny part of the touchscreen with the word Send on it. So it's not really auto. Shame.

Ted: Do we really need to have laws enforcing common sense?

If it were so common, and people followed it, we wouldn't need laws.

I'd rather see a law banning using phones while driving, and then this "key" can be used to help people not get fined for it. I really get sick of seeing morons on phones slowing up traffic, causing accidents, swirving around in their lanes, and other problems. It's almost like the phone retards their brains, which really it does since it distracts them from their far more important task: driving.

I almost find it a shame that this device won't EMP-fry their phone.

Would uninstall the blocking software from their mobiles. Or just buy another mobile... This is so stupid.

This is not jamming, this is simply an answer machine. True jamming is strictly (?) forbidden by FCC regs and will bring them down on you in short order if you do jam and get reported.

To address my own post (after reading the link) - this is a subscription service only; it doesn't indiscriminately block mobiles.

What about their passengers? Obviously they needn't be prevented from taking calls/txts. I don't think there is a way to differentiate a passenger’s mobile from the driver's. Poop goes that idea

"We would have thought that a smart kid would have just disabled the Bluetooth function on their mobile phone before starting the car"

A smart kid wouldn't need to disable the phone. A smart kid simply wouldn't use the phone while driving.

I read this article just after seeing my local news report about someone trying to make a law banning texting while driving by teens. Do we really need to have laws enforcing common sense?