Give teens a brake ... I mean break

Help, help. There's a teenager in my house and he wants the car keys.

Is this the beginning of a monster movie with my son as the thing from another planet, or is it a heartwarming story of growth and transition?

Is teenage judgment dangerously impaired, or are adults irrationally fearful?

My son isn't about to hit the highway just yet. But Tao is 15 and wants to take driving lessons this summer.

It's an occasion for both anticipation and anxiety.

I thought about my early driving mistakes. Other parents, brain-science studies, insurers, all had something to add to the fear factor.

And as I was wrestling with the question of teenage driving behavior, Safeco arrived at my side, light saber in hand.

The insurance company has a device that it can install in cars driven by teenagers. The device can collect and transmit information about the car's location, speed and other data.

Parents who pay for the service will be able to monitor their teens, and even turn the ignition off remotely.

All of this is based on the belief that teenagers and cars are a risky combination.

Teens lack experience, have poor judgment and are subject to peer pressure. There are recent studies that say their brains are still under construction. Logical decision making can be harder for them. Emotional stability is iffy.

Those studies say brain decision-making structures are not complete until around 25.

Hmmm. Sometimes my son does exhibit the symptoms of an immature brain, but then so do older people.

A study blares that more teens die in automobile accidents than of any other cause. But wait, how many teens are dying of cancer and heart disease?

One researcher says adults misjudge teens.

Sociologist Mike Male of the University of California, Santa Cruz, studied fatality statistics and concluded that if we take into account things like who caused the accident and car quality, teens don't come off badly.

He thinks grown-ups load a lot of undeserved baggage onto teens, and not just about driving.

He's probably right about that.

Adults, with all our experience, make bonehead decisions all the time. People under 25 didn't get us into Iraq, though more than a few of them have died there.

I don't need a study to tell me that a bunch of teens in a car is cause for concern. Imposing some restrictions on teen drivers saves lives.

But we don't need to spy on them every minute, tempting as that is.

Getting a driver's license is as close as our society comes to having a rite of passage. We parents have to trust our kids to learn, make mistakes and grow.

My first week driving, I remodeled a fence, just a bit.

I'll still trade teen stories with other parents. That's part of our coping mechanism.

I'll still worried. But I think I'll try to talk my wife down from the excitement she felt when Safeco announced the tracking device.

Jerry Large's column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.