June 26, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Governor Quinn Saturday signed a new law to help prevent teen suicide by adapting the Jason Flatt Act. This marks another tool to help parents fight back against cyberbullying and sexting; which have both been attributed to teen suicides throughout the U.S.  Illinois is the fifth state to pass a law such as this.

His father, Clark Flatt, said “I can guarantee you because of this act, Governor, there will be a young person alive 12 months from now that would not have been alive without this law – and how important is that?” said Flatt. “If that young person is your son, your daughter, your grandson or your granddaughter, as they say on the commercial, it’s priceless.”

The Act now allow requires social workers for grades 7 – 12 to undergo suicide prevention training; previously only required of guidance counselors and teachers.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people.

There are normally multiple ‘reasons’ behind a teen suicide.  Some recent tragedies have been directly tied to sexting and cyberbullying.

KidPhone Advocate was created and is run by concerned parents committed to helping parents become involved and save their children from the problems and pressures they face as tweens and teens.  The commitment is to stay ahead of technology and provide tools for parents to help oversee their children.

Through June 28th, KidPhone Advocate is running a test for parents to try the produce and provide feedback.  Those accepted will receive all products for 90days, free of charge.  Interested parents should go to http://www.kidphoneadvocate.com/support.aspx and express their interest in the comment box.  To be considered, the child’s age, and the make and model of the phone must be included.

The KidPhone Advocate product line is scheduled to roll out in mid-July:

  • Call Pal and Text Pal: Monitor your kid’s cell phones to keep them safe from online predators but also create responsible young adults. Alerts triggered by key words (sex, drugs, etc.)
  • Stop Pal: Parents will have the ability to oversee their teen driver’s phone while they are in transit. The ability to call or text is disabled on the phone with the exception of 911 and two parent or guardian phone numbers.
  • Locate Pal: A product that works on your child’s cell phone; which allows you to monitor their whereabouts on a map and reports to you the speed at which they’ve been traveling.
  • Block Pal (Coming Soon): Kid Phone Advocate will provide an add-on service that will block phone calls and text messages sent to the phone from unwanted sources.

Once the application has been installed on the child’s phone, it immediately begins communicating with the KidPhone Advocate equipment to report activity such as text messages, calls, GPS and speed of travel.

As the parent or guardian, monitoring is accessed by merely signing in to KidPhone Advocate. Watchwords are defined and customizable. Words appearing such as bullying, death, suicide, sex, pregnancy, etc. will trigger an immediate alert either to the parent cell phone or email (based on preference at set up). As a parent, the website is accessible anytime day or night and monitor the activity.