Encryption and Protecting Your Child from Identity Theft

Identity theft of children is a national epidemic that impacted more than 1 million kids last year. Breaches into kids’ clean credit files often go unseen until they are adults and attempt to buy a car, rent an apartment, or get a credit card - allowing identity thieves a long “escape time” before their crimes are detected. Scammers have discovered that they can use a child’s sensitive information — name, date of birth, and Social Security number — to take out credit cards, open loans, apply for work, and file taxes.

Protecting children from identity theft relies heavily on encryption – a security tool that converts data and text into code readable only by authorized parties. Noting its use by criminals to “hide their tracks,” some law enforcement professionals and proponents of child protection seek to weaken encryption. Unfortunately, hackers and data thieves quickly find new ways to break through secure, unencrypted systems, including those that serve children. Eliminating encryption effectively trades one form of child exploitation for another.   

According to the Javelin Strategy and Research 2022 Study of Child Identity Fraud, the number of children whose personal identifiable information (PII) exposed in a data breach has increased year over year with one in 43 minors affected (with social media as the most common tool used by hackers in these cases). After the Equifax and Experian data breaches, most Americans have been impacted – and by some accounts, all Americans.

Concerns that children or parents voluntarily provide personal information to tech companies are overshadowed by the reality that virtually all systems suffer from serious security risks. Again, for child victims of identity theft, the impact may go unnoticed until they apply for a student loan or their first apartment.

Companies, like Nashville-based Protect My Kids ID (PMKID) know the critical importance of strong encryption to protect kids. As experts in child identity theft protection, they have created a simple, affordable tool that gives parents and guardians the ability to provide kids with real protection by freezing their children’s social security number at all 3 credit bureaus, providing a proactive way to prevent children from becoming victims of financial fraud and identity theft. 

Kids Matter, which focuses on children in foster and kinship care (who are especially vulnerable to identity theft), has compiled an excellent resource for all proactive parents or guardians hoping to protect their kids. 

Despite concerns from critics, strong encryption can protect kids and all consumers from identity theft. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and so given a choice, it’s better to prevent crimes in the first place than make it easier to catch criminals.