Movie-makers have left no stone unturned in portraying their imagination of dystopian worlds, where machines often take control of mankind. Well, in all reality, we might actually be sitting ducks waiting for a ‘Skynet’ of sorts to form and take over all our resources. Regardless, if there’s one thing that we can assert with complete certainty, it is that technology has coalesced into our daily lives to an enormous degree. With technology increasingly amalgamating itself into our daily routines, the future generations run a risk of being too caught up in smartphone screens to ever notice the real world in its glory. Smartphone addiction is already depriving kids of any physical activity for entertainment. Kids these days would rather simulate running around with a basketball as Michael Jordan than to actually step into the court and score a few points with the ball in their own hands. However, technology isn’t all bad. For example, it is due to the internet that everyone can readily access godly amounts of information at all times. The R&D capabilities of our species have definitely benefited from innovation in the tech sector. Conversely, the second side of the coin exists only to our peril. Identity theft is a common occurrence on the web these days. Young children are prone to exploitation on the internet 24/7. Online perpetrators have formed criminal syndicates aimed at preying on the naive minds of kids and adolescents alike. Given such circumstances, parents need to educate their kids about the dangers on the World Wide Web. Children must be advised not to share sensitive information with any stranger over the internet. Furthermore, parents need to be on the lookout for signs that children already traumatized by internet blunders might exhibit. A parental monitoring and control software poses as a viable solution to achieve the above-mentioned goal.

A recent research by All Clear ID said that $12,000 is the average debt of a child identity theft victim. And 70% use of the stolen children IDs is for credit card/loan fraud.

Here is a detailed report on a recent research on Children Identity Theft – The Center for Identity (Research institute in Austin, Texas)

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As we all know, precaution is better than cure. Therefore, parents are advised to educate their kids about what can go wrong on the internet. After all, containing the influx of damage is easier than damage control. Furthermore, given the incremental increase in online dangers in the past few years, striking a conversation about identity theft protection with children is even more important than before. You don’t need to constantly bug your kid with overly frequent chit-chats about how bad the internet is. Instead, you need to initiate a dialogue every once in a while that doesn’t overwhelm the child. You know your kid the best. Given his/her appetite for such conversations, tweak the number to yield the best possible outcome. Inform your kids about online threats like cyber bullying, identity theft, financial exploitation, etc. Also, make sure that you ask them if they are facing any problem of their own. Creating a friendly and safe space where your kids can confide in is the key.

Let’s discuss the threat of online identity theft in a bit more detail. To do so, the following questions need to be asked.

also read : How Can Cell Phone Tracking App Control Your Children ?

Why is your kid’s identity at the risk of being stolen?

Well, online perpetrators don’t target adults alone. Kids are at an equivalent risk of being the victims of identity theft on the internet. Even if a child doesn’t possess any financial credentials like a credit card, the social security number of the child can very well be used for dishonorable agendas. In fact, a new credit card can be opened with a social security number. Given no apparent cues to any form of financial tinkering, a kid subjected to identity fraud won’t even know what hit him. The social security number of your child can also be used to create important documents like a passport, an identity card, and more.

also read: A Parent’s Guide to Teenage Behavior Problems and Its Solutions

What about the older kids who are in possession of credit and debit cards?

Well, they are at an even higher risk of being subjected to identity theft on the internet. The number one objective of perpetrators who prey on the identity of innocent children is to extort money out of them. Furthermore, criminals on the web can also induce a kid to share the details of his/ her parents’ credit card. In order to prevent that from happening, parents need to make sure that their kids only visit secure websites. Also, keeping an eye for questionable friendships on the internet is also a must.

Do you need to explain the details of identity protection to your children?

Hell yeah! There is a fine line between protecting kids from things they don’t need to know and educating them about the information that they must possess. Identity theft is a piece of information that your kid needs to know about. Create a friendly dialogue about the red flags that children must be on the lookout for. A very important thing to teach your kids is to never share one’s social security number with an e-commerce site. Genuine sellers will never inquire about that piece of information. Moreover, tell your kids to shop only on legitimate websites with certified security ratings. Tell them not to share sensitive information with an unknown entity on the internet.

Is it alright to use scare tactics to keep children from being subjected to identity fraud on the web?

Hell no! The goal is to enlighten, and not to frighten. In order to keep your kids safe from identity theft, you don’t want them to develop a negative image in the world. As mentioned above, there is a fine line separating things that kids need to know and the ones they don’t. Portraying the world as an enterprise breeding evil sociopaths is definitely an item on the ‘don’t share’ side of the line being talked about.

Parents all around the globe are doing their best to nurture their children to the best of their abilities. However, there are some things that kids are simply not mature enough to understand. Owing to that sense of naivety, kids often start keeping things from their parents. In turn, such secrets eventually develop into blunders of enormous proportions. Kids will try to handle things on their own a lot of times; even to a fault. The indisputable fact is that children are incapable of knowing the difference between problems they can handle on their own and the ones they can’t. That is where parents need to intervene. A valuable tool to help parents achieve the objective of keeping their kids safe is to use the best parental monitoring software. TiSPY is a great alternative out there. It boasts a sense of credibility owing to its huge user-base. A number of parents have signified their assent to the usefulness of TiSPY.

In a nutshell, in order to equip your kids with the means to practice identity theft protection, you need to use a two-pronged approach. The first things to do is to educate kids about the dangers of the internet in a friendly manner. The second thing is to gain access to an efficient parental monitoring software like TiSPY.

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By Diksha Yadav

Diksha Yadav is software developer with 4+ year experience in .NET and C#. She is senior developer and team leader in MNC and part-time blogger. She has enjoyed numerous assignments with the Company including automotive testing.

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