We spend so much of our time and energies protecting children that it’s difficult to imagine them as crime victims. And yet thousands of youngsters become victims of crime without anyone (except the thief) knowing it has happened.

According to one study completed a few years ago, the theft of children’s identities was much more pervasive in the U.S. than anyone had previously thought. That research checked the identities of 40,000 children and found that one in every ten children had their identities stolen and used!  

Other research shows that children in foster care may be even more likely to become identity theft victims and a survey in California showed that half of the children in its foster care system were victims.

The identities were used to obtain driver’s and other types of licenses, open credit accounts with banks and credit card companies and one child had a home in foreclosure. The youngest victim found in the study was 5 months old.

The lure of a child’s information to an identity theft is irresistible because they can use that credit history until the child becomes old enough to apply for credit (usually around age 18) and discovers the long history of fraud. And unfortunately there is currently no way for a creditor to know the age of the person whose social security number is being used.

Until the recent number of large data breaches, it was easier to determine who had used the child’s identity because the thieves needed to know that the victim was a child. This placed the thief somewhere within that child’s actual environment: a family member, caregiver or other involved adult.

Unfortunately, some recent data breaches included employee and/or healthcare information which have also included the names and ages of dependent children. This has expanded the scope of the identity theft activity from those within the child’s environment to potentially anyone, anywhere.

So, if you have young children or grandchildren, what can you do to make their information more secure?

First, take control of the amount of information that’s posted on the internet about that child. It’s tempting to mention birthdays over social media, but that gives an identity thief the ability to learn the child’s name and date of birth. Second, no matter how adorable the picture or how wonderful the accomplishment, resist the temptation to alert the press.  Third, don’t give out your child’s name, age or social security number to anyone unless you absolutely must.

Finally, use Maine’s recent change in the security freeze law to place freezes on your child’s credit reports with each of the credit bureaus.  For more information about placing a security freeze on your or your minor child’s credit reports, here are the phone numbers to call:

Transunion – 1-888-909-8872, Experian – 1-888-397-3742, and Equifax - 1-800-685-5000

Maine Identity Services, LLC provides data breach and identity theft assistance to individuals, organizations and law enforcement personnel through its books, seminars and police materials. For more information about the company and its products, visit www.meidhelp.com.

Jane Carpenter is the founder of Maine Identity Services, LLC.