At the heart and soul of this issue, is the fact that there are P-platers who are breaking the law; speeding and driving dangerously. They have a disregard for the law and safety of other people.
I find it funny, that the way that some people suggest to combat this, is to introduce new laws and restrictions on P-platers. The p-platers don't obey speed limits, or other traffic laws.. but yeh, they are going to obey the new laws and restrictions placed on them, aren't they?
People are taking the wrong stance on this. The answer isn't to introduce new laws, the answer is to educate teenagers, either at school or through an external driving course, about:
the physics behind driving
the physiology of the human body and
how these two things interact.
They need to be taught that the human body is not designed to travel at fast speeds. The human brain has a density of butter. The average cricketer can through a ball at 120 KM/H. Imagine giving your brain to a cricketer and getting him to through it at a brick wall. This is essentially what is happening when you drive at fast speeds and they come to a stop by running into something - the consequences are generally life long injury and brain damage (in about 80% of the cases) or death. You have no control of what pops in front of you - no person in the history of man kind has chosen to be in a car accident which has resulted in them dieing. Things happen on the road - animals run out in front of people.. cars disobey the law.. people fall asleep.. And it distrupts peoples expectancies and people die. When you exceed the speed limit it makes things worse.
Young people are told a lot of rubbish by their parents - That sex is bad, that santa bring presents etc. So, when they are told that speeding is dangerous, they may have a tendency to pass this advice and information off as molly codling. "Speeding isn't dangerous, deerrrrrrr, i saw fast and the furious and they don't die, derrrrrrrrrrrr". They don't understand how dangerous driving is. It is not speeding which is dangerous. It is driving which is dangerous.
You can introduce as many laws and restrictions as you want, but if you don't attack this underlying attitude towards driving, then they are just going to come out the other end (fully licenced) as dick head drivers who are just as dangerous!
Essentially, introducing new laws and restrictions, serves to disavantage the large majority of responsible p-platers, and does not restrict those people who disregard the law (which is who the laws are attempting to target!)
People are also too happy to stereotype.. Not every p-plater drives around with his hat on back the front listening to loud music. I know a 50 year old woman who is on her red Ps. Introducing restrictions is not the answer, education is.