Back-to-school warning: Parents urged to freeze children's credit amid rise in data breaches
As kids head back to school, experts are warning parents not to overlook a growing threat: child identity theft.
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, large-scale breaches involving schools, education companies and healthcare organizations have exposed millions of children's records in recent years, increasing the risk that personal information could be misused.
James E. Lee, president of the Identity Theft Resource Center, says children's identities are especially attractive to criminals because they are essentially a blank slate.
"A child's [information], that's gold to an identity criminal," Lee said.
Unlike adults, children generally have no credit history, employment record or financial accounts, allowing identity theft to go undetected for years. Lee says it can take a decade or more before a family discovers a child's information has been compromised.
Why experts recommend a credit freeze
The Federal Trade Commission says parents and legal guardians can place a free security freeze on a child's credit file, making it more difficult for criminals to open new accounts using that child's information.
The process is more involved than freezing an adult's credit because most children do not already have a credit file.
Parents must contact Equifax, Experian and TransUnion individually and provide documentation verifying both their identity and their relationship to the child.
The Identity Theft Resource Center offers guidance on the process at FrozenPII.com.
Additional steps parents can take
Experts also recommend asking questions whenever a school, doctor's office or other organization requests a child's Social Security number or other sensitive information. Parents should ask why the information is needed, how it will be protected and whether another identifier can be used instead.
The FTC advises parents to watch for warning signs of identity theft, including collection notices, government benefits issues or credit activity tied to a child who should not have a credit history.
If you suspect your child's identity has been stolen, experts recommend contacting the credit bureaus and reporting the fraud through IdentityTheft.gov.
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