Is Your Child Safe From Identity Theft?
Most parents have enough of a job simply keeping track of a child’s vaccinations, sports practices, homework, dance recitals, band performances, music lessons and when was the last time they ate a green vegetable. We haven’t even considered the safety of our child’s social security number, and protecting them from identity theft.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (and common sense), prevention is the best protection! Two possible vulnerabilities of your child’s identity may surprise you, and may even cause you to check your child’s credit score.
School requests for personal information may come home with your child, or be received in the mail or email, and the school database may not be anywhere near as secure as the bank. For example, during an overnight music field trip, your child’s chaperone may be given a printout with your child’s picture and educational record. If you have given the school your child’s social security number, it most likely will be included on that printout. The chaperone has been fingerprinted by the county and school district for the personal safety of your child, but that printout can easily be lost or stolen, thereby compromising your child’s identity safety.
Your child, herself can create her own identity risk as well. Many 4th and 5th graders are fabricating their birth year in order to obtain a facebook account. If this child’s parents are not aware of this, or are not monitoring the account and privacy settings, her identity as well as her personal safety is at great risk!
As parents, we use online bill-pay and banking conveniences regularly, therefore we accept the risks and monitor our credit for prevention and protection from theft. If we want our children to have the same convenience of an online lifestyle in their adulthood, must we now think of our child’s credit monitoring?
Have you checked your child’s credit score yet? Are you concerned for your child’s identity safety?
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One clever idea to prevent child identity theft is a bill passed in the State of Maryland allowing parents or guardians to proactively put a credit “freeze” or lock on their child’s identity. The law SB 295; HB 555, went into effect January 1, 2013. If you would like to read the text of the laws, here are links to that information: Bill: SB 295: http://legiscan.com/MD/text/SB295/2012 and Bill: HB 555: http://legiscan.com/MD/text/HB555/2012 . Legislators in the State of Florida are currently working on a similar bill.
It’s a shocking experience thousands of parents have endured the past few years: finding out someone else has been using their child’s identity. It’s heartbreaking to think of a young person trying to start out in life already tarnished by unwarranted black marks. To guard against a future of frustration for your child, take the following kid-specific identity theft prevention measures.