Money Crashers: How to Prevent Child Identity Theft

While doing research for my article on freezing your credit, I discovered that it's also possible to set up a credit freeze for a child younger than 17. On the face of it, this seems like a puzzling thing to do, since kids that young can't legally borrow money and shouldn't have a credit report in the first place. And it's true, they can't open credit accounts for themselves—but that doesn't stop other people from creating accounts using their information. In fact, the very fact that kids can't create their own credit reports makes them particularly appealing targets for identity thieves, because they can create a fake credit profile with a young child's data and use it for years without getting caught.

This seemed like a big enough deal to deserve an article of its own. So my latest Money Crashers article is all about the problem of identity theft. It covers:

• How child identity theft happens, and how it differs from adult identity theft
• Who commits this crime and why
• Which children are most at risk
• What it can cost the victims and their families
• Warning signs of child identity theft
• Ways to prevent it, including checking and/or freezing your kids' credit reports, protecting their personal information, being aware of risky situations, and talking to your kids about it
• What to do if your child is a victim

This information is vital for anyone who has kids, and useful for anyone who knows anyone who has kids. I'm thinking of passing the article along to my sister and my sibs-in-law, just to give them a heads-up so none of our niblings (did I mention that this is the official gender-neutral plural for nieces and nephews?) ever have to deal with this problem.

How to Prevent & Avoid Child Identity Theft – Protection For Your Kids