US Congress weighs proposal for protecting children from identity theft, fraud

Having your identity stolen can complicate your life for years, and it doesn’t just happen to adults.

Criminals also steal kids’ information, and that can be especially hard to fix.

Channel 2 Washington Correspondent Samantha Manning spoke to a children’s advocate, about a new proposal to help protect children from identity fraud.

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More kids are growing their digital footprints at a young age, giving cybercriminals more opportunities to use their information for identity theft. They’re prime targets because they don’t have a long credit history or any credit problems

Often, cybercriminals open credit cards or other accounts in children’s names.

Tracy Kitten, Director of Fraud and Security at Javelin Strategy and Research, said nearly one million children are targets of identity theft every year, and sometimes, the crime goes undetected for years.

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“There could be accounts that are open right now that they aren’t aware of,” Kitten said. “It’s not usually until you go to tap the child’s credit. So when the child applies for a student loan or tries to get an apartment or purchase a car that you discover that the identity has been compromised.”

A new bipartisan bill in U.S. Congress was proposed to protect kids from this fraud.

The Credit Freeze for Newborns Act would allow parents to contact one of the credit bureaus to freeze their child’s credit. That agency is then required to notify the others within three days.

It’s meant to make the process easier and faster and requires the Social Security Administration to give parents information about how to freeze a credit file when issuing a Social Security Card.

Kitten told Channel 2 Action News that parents can also take their own steps.

“Oftentimes parents don’t set a good example themselves because they tend to overshare about their own children,” Kitten said. “Many of these kids have a very vast presence on social media before they even have an age to consent to be on social media so I would advise parents to kind of reel it in just a little bit.”

Studies show child identity theft can cost families nearly $1 billion every year.

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