For parents across the country, registering their children for preschool, kindergarten or a new school system is a necessary part of making sure those kids get the education they need. But at the same time, doing so might also pose a significant problem when it comes to protecting their personal information.
Many school registration forms require parents to turn over large amounts of private and sensitive data about their children, which in turn poses an identity theft threat, according to a report from the Christian Science Monitor. The required information and associated documents can include everything form their names and dates of birth to their Social Security numbers and even copies of their birth certificate.
All that information could therefore fall into the wrong hands if the school to which it is being turned over does not take all precautions to completely protect it, the report said. For this reason, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently took the time to warn parents about all documents their kids' schools make them fill out, including registrations, permission slips, health forms and student directories. This is because a large number of cases of identity theft are the result of a rogue employee stealing data.
In fact, a study from Carnegie Mellon University conducted last year found that more than 10 percent of all children had someone else using their Social Security number, the report said. When compared with the same statistic for adults, the rate is 50 times larger. Child victims who are affected by these crimes can be just about any age - the youngest ever was just five months old - and their data can be used to obtain everything from a credit card, mortgage or auto loan, to jobs and official government documents like drivers' licenses.
Identity theft involving children is often problematic because in many cases it may take several years or more for victims or their parents to realize they've been affected by such a crime, because there's no reason for anyone under the age of 18 to have a credit report in their own name at all.
Matt Cullina, the chief executive officer for Identity Theft 911, has a blog about the ways in which children can be affected by this type of fraud.
Many school registration forms require parents to turn over large amounts of private and sensitive data about their children, which in turn poses an identity theft threat, according to a report from the Christian Science Monitor. The required information and associated documents can include everything form their names and dates of birth to their Social Security numbers and even copies of their birth certificate.
All that information could therefore fall into the wrong hands if the school to which it is being turned over does not take all precautions to completely protect it, the report said. For this reason, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently took the time to warn parents about all documents their kids' schools make them fill out, including registrations, permission slips, health forms and student directories. This is because a large number of cases of identity theft are the result of a rogue employee stealing data.
In fact, a study from Carnegie Mellon University conducted last year found that more than 10 percent of all children had someone else using their Social Security number, the report said. When compared with the same statistic for adults, the rate is 50 times larger. Child victims who are affected by these crimes can be just about any age - the youngest ever was just five months old - and their data can be used to obtain everything from a credit card, mortgage or auto loan, to jobs and official government documents like drivers' licenses.
Identity theft involving children is often problematic because in many cases it may take several years or more for victims or their parents to realize they've been affected by such a crime, because there's no reason for anyone under the age of 18 to have a credit report in their own name at all.
Matt Cullina, the chief executive officer for Identity Theft 911, has a blog about the ways in which children can be affected by this type of fraud.