A technique for reinforcing seatbelt usage in automobiles is described. One implementation of which includes a weight sensor in the car seat that detects occupancy by a person and generates an occupancy signal that is transmitted to a seatbelt monitor unit that receives both the occupancy signal and a buckled seatbelt signal (based on a magnetic switch in the female portion of the buckle), and based thereupon, generates an unbuckled seatbelt alarm signal if the buckled seatbelt signal indicates that the buckle is not buckled when the transmitted occupancy signal indicates that the respective seat is occupied. A program executing on the automobile's stock computer then receives the unbuckled seatbelt alarm signal from the seatbelt monitor unit and handicaps the operation of the automobile in a predetermined way (e.g., speed limitation, engine kill, etc.).