Parents have many different things they worry about when it comes to their children. They worry about health, safety, education and many other facets of life. What they don’t normally worry about, is the safety of their child’s identity.

Javelin Strategy and Research have recently released a study that shows the scary statistics relating to the identities of children. In this study, it was found that:

· 5% of children had a credit history already established under their social security number and that 54% of them were victims of identity theft;
· Of the 5% mentioned earlier, the average fraudulent charges on their file was over $12,000 each;
· 12% of those children who already have problems reported on their credit, were 5 years old and under.

It is unfortunate that most of these children will not be faced with the problems that are caused by identity theft and poor credit ratings until they are old enough to need to use their social security number for important services such as student loans and renting a home or apartment. It could even hinder something as simple as getting their own cell phone in their name.

Parents definitely need to be aware of whether their child’s credit is still in tact and how to prevent it from being tarnished. Parents should ask for a copy of their child or children’s credit report.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 11:55 am and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.