Are Our Children at Risk for Identity Theft?

Governments around the world are addressing identity theft by passing laws and regulations as part of the effort to slow down illegal trade and terrorism. In most cases the efforts only addresses the use of adult identities.  Children under the age of 18, however, have a much higher risk of identity theft than is commonly realized. 

Because children have no credit histories, they are a perfect target.  Thieves can often get away with the crime for years since children aren’t old enough to establish credit.  In most cases identity theft is not realized until a child attempts to obtain college loans.

There are two basic types of identity theft - financial and non financial. Thieves start with the non financial information first in order to gain access to the financial opportunities. As soon as your child receives a social security number he or she is at risk.  According to the Federal Trade Commission more than 20,000 children and teens were victims of identity theft in 2008 alone.  But understand that the number represents only those cases that were reported.  Many more are not even aware that their children’s identities have been compromised.   

We live in a technologically advanced world in which information flows easily.  Though this world makes our lives easier and more efficient it also comes with new responsibilities.  Identity theft is easy to do and it is lucrative.  If a four year old is capable of performing advanced tasks in a P.C. commercial or a 16 year old child can loose his cell phone filled with personally identifiable information, how hard is it steal an identity for quick cash?  If new viruses can be created to replace the viruses we have learned to thwart, then we must also assume that identity theft cannot be stopped either for the same reason.         

Vigilance, education, early detection, and expert consultation can be a powerful package of tools to minimize the risk of becoming a victim of identity theft at any age.  For example, announcements in the paper, profiles on social networking sites, and sudden volumes of mail involving family events are fertile opportunities for identity thieves.  They scan papers and social networking sites as well as look through trash for discarded mail. It only takes knowing a name and one other piece of information to steal an identity. Don’t underestimate the fact that a lawn sign stating that “it’s a girl or boy” doesn’t alert someone that an identity is viable to steal. Remember a time when our children wore their names on their clothing and we stopped that practice once we learned it was use by predators to lure our children away.  This is no different. 

In addition be aware that 50% of identity theft occurs by someone you know. Do not underestimate the possibility that a relative decided to use your child’s identity for his own strategic purposes without your knowledge or that your child’s medical record was copied by someone in the emergency room and they then sold it.  Medical identity theft is increasingly common and dangerous both among adults and children.

 It’s important to educate yourself and your children as early as possible about what is private information and the need to safeguard it.  It is also vital that a child’s credit be monitored throughout childhood the same as adults. 

Many companies offer to monitor adult credit histories and alert consumers when an inquiry is made for a nominal monthly fee. Only one company extends the service to children as well.  When you consider that restoring identities costs adults an average of $92,500 and up to 1600 hours attempting to clear it up, imagine how much more it could cost to restore the damage from a child's perfect credit score. 

As we learn to make it harder for thieves to steal identities from adults, efforts will shift to children because it’s easy to do.  Governments around the world are addressing identity theft for serious international threats that every adult should understand.  But for now it doesn’t include our children and they will  remain  a greater risk until mounting evidence demonstrates they need to be included in future regulations.