The Peril of Child Identity Theft and How to Mitigate It

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We often hear of how we need to protect ourselves from online scams. Criminals seek our personal information in order to use it for multiple nefarious purposes. However, there is a population who, while not having a broad online presence, are equally vulnerable to identity theft. Children are particularly vulnerable to identity theft, as they often have clean credit histories and their personal information is not monitored as closely as adults. Personal information theft can set up the victim for a lifetime of crimes committed in their name.

What Happens When a Child’s Identity is Stolen?

When the victim is a child, the consequences are much worse on many levels. Many children don't know about crimes committed using their identity until they become adults, with social media being a particularly effective means for harvesting information about minors.

If a child ends up with a terrible credit history despite having never sought any credit options, that’s a sign that the child’s information has been used for nefarious purposes. Upon becoming an adult, finding out that you can’t apply for a student loan to go to college, or even obtain a credit card is a damning experience that needs more attention than we place on it.

The Scale of the Danger of Child Identity Theft

According to a research study conducted in 2021, US families lose $1 billion annually to child identity fraud, with 1 in 50 children being at risk of their personal information being stolen. As it turns out, this theft is often perpetrated by someone who is unduly close to the child, such as a relative or a close family friend.

In one preposterous story published years back, one child had her identity stolen by her very own mom, who then enrolled in high school, pretending to be the 15-year-old daughter. Even for adults, identity theft is no joke, as can be seen from the story of an entrepreneur who was denied a mortgage due to bad credit. It turns out that his information was compromised, and he couldn’t find a preventative solution. This further emphasizes the risk for children, who are among the most vulnerable in society.

Indeed, far more terrible losses have been suffered by teenagers who have had their personal information stolen. Sometimes, such information is not only used to commit fraud, but also to blackmail, or bully the child. In the worst case, the information can be used to target the teenager for sexual exploitation, known as grooming. More so, family identity theft is the reality for many minors and parents have a greater responsibility to protect their children from harm.

The situation is even more perilous for children in foster care. Their personal data is frequently transferred between different parties, and the roughly 400,000 children in foster care in the US are at an even more severe risk of their identity being stolen and used to commit fraud or other crimes.

Children are also at risk of their data being misused by organizations, or even getting breached. In 2021, on the dark web, ransomware criminals leaked the data of over 1,200 schools. Many of the schools did not even know their data had been breached.

Protecting the Online Privacy of Children

Unlike adults, children don’t understand the risks of their information being misused and they are unable to determine what amount of information is safe to share publicly, such as on a social media platform, and with whom such information may be shared.

Also, they depend on their parents to set proper privacy settings to protect them. Parents have to ensure that the only apps their children can access are the ones marked safe for everyone. However, what happens when even apps meant for children are compromised?

Social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, as well as other big tech companies such as Amazon and Microsoft have, at one time or another, faced sanctions and heavy criticism for mishandling the data of children, including those under the age of 13.

Perhaps even more worrying is the fact that even children’s apps are in breach of the law when it comes to handling children’s data. According to a study, over 25% of children’s apps on Google Play Store – up from 20% 2 years earlier – violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the primary law regulating the handling of the data of children under 13.

These at-risk apps had been downloaded by 415 million users as of the time the study was conducted. Perhaps even more interesting is that virtually all the affected apps were marked as “teacher-approved” on the Google Play Store, a sort of safety badge that is meant to make parents rest assured that their children were protected.

Unfortunately, the reverse is the case.

The Role of Parents and Organizations

Parents, of course, have a role to play in monitoring their children’s online activities. However, the problem imposes a greater responsibility and extends to stopping children’s personal information from getting into the wrong hands. Parents should always maintain vigilance, but there is also a lot of responsibility on organizations, especially those who have minors in their user base.

They must implement stringent procedures in verifying the identity of their users' identities, particularly enhancing the protection of kids' information from data breaches. Security solutions help organizations easily enforce compliance policies to ensure that everyone in the company with access to users’ personal information operates with integrity.

Conclusion

Child identity theft is a serious problem that can have devastating consequences for children. It can lead to financial problems, ruined credit, and even criminal records. In addition to all the steps explained above, parents must also:

• Teach children, especially teenagers, about online safety and the importance of keeping personal information private.
• Use strong passwords and multi-factor authentication (which includes parental approval) for online accounts.
• Be wary of phishing scams that attempt to steal children’s information from the parents.
• Monitor their kids’ credit reports regularly for signs of fraud.
• Report any suspected child identity theft to the authorities for immediate remediation

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this guest author article are solely those of the contributor, and do not necessarily reflect those of Tripwire.