Despite the risks involved in letting teens drive with other teens, parents are putting their children in potentially dangerous situations, a new survey found.

According to a new AAA survey, nearly half of parents surveyed allow their teen to ride with another teen driver at least once a week.

"Even if their teen is not driving yet, parents need to make teen driver safety a priority," said AAA CEO and President Robert Darbelnet. "Teen crash risks increase long before teens start driving by themselves, so parents should talk to their children about being a safe passenger well before they reach driving age."

Nearly all parents surveyed -- 96 percent -- correctly identified the dangers of driving with multiple teen passengers or one teen passenger (65 percent).

But, 15 percent of parents of non-driving high school students allow their child to ride with a teen at least weekly, as do 5 percent of parents of junior high students.

According to the survey, parents are unaware of the increasing risk of dying in a car crash their young teens face before they reach driving age.

Parents who allow their young teens to ride with new teen drivers likely are unaware of the danger involved. Despite research showing crash risk begins to rise significantly at age 12, the survey found that nine out of 10 parents surveyed said that a child’s risk of dying in a car crash does not significantly increase until at age 15 or later.

"We've made great strides in research identifying risky driving conditions for teens and in promoting graduated driver licensing to help states and parents reduce teen crashes and deaths," said Darbelnet. "For National Teen Driver Safety Week, though, we're calling on parents to establish parent-teen driving agreements with their current or soon-to-be teen drivers. We're also providing concrete tips for parents to follow at each step of the teen driver process."

AAA surveyed parents whose oldest children were ages 12 to 17 and divided them into three groups based on their exposure to teen driving: parents of teens who are driving by themselves; parents of non-driving high school-age teens who do not have a driver's license and children who have a learner's permit; and parents of junior high school students.

Across all three categories, AAA found parents correctly identified dangerous driving conditions for teens such as driving with multiple teen passengers (96 percent), late at night (93 percent), after drinking alcohol/using drugs (98 percent), and while using a cell phone (97 percent).