Parents have always been concerned about the physical safety of their children, especially when they’re at school. These days, parents also need to be concerned about keeping their child’s identity safe and protecting their personally identifiable information, or PII. What is included in PII? Name, address, Social Security number — basically, all the information that’s requested on the registration, health and emergency contact forms that tend to show up this time of year. Teenagers might be filling out forms for sports, clubs and applications for after-school jobs. If this information falls into the wrong hands, it could be used to commit fraud in your child’s name. According to the Federal Trade Commission’s 2017 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book, nearly 20 percent of all identity theft victims are age 29 or younger.
In light of these stats, here are 6 ways you can protect your child’s privacy and personally identifiable information:
Ask your child’s school about its directory information policy. Student directory information can include your child’s name, address, date of birth, telephone number, email address and photo. This is a lot of information to divulge in a public publication.
Sign up for a LibertyID’s Family Plan, which covers you, your spouse, parents and children in the event of identity theft. Subscribers call us at the first sign something is amiss and we assign them a personal recovery advocate who will clean up the mess and restore their identity to pre-event status. Sign up for an annual subscription now and rest easy knowing you’re covered by LibertyID.
Find out the school’s policy on surveys and what information they might try to gather directly from your child. The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) gives you the right to see surveys and instructional materials before they are distributed to students.
Find out the school’s social media policy. If your child is just starting their school journey and will be attending preschool this fall, it’s worth finding out if the school has Social Media accounts where they post photos of the students. Find out the school’s policy and if you feel uneasy about having your child’s photo posted on accounts that are likely public with no “friends only” security measures in place, then find out if you can opt out.
Talk to your child about the importance of being careful with their Social Security number and other private information. Encourage them to be very careful who they give their address and phone number to as well.
If something does happen and you feel like the school did something to put your child’s identity at risk, you can file a complaint. You may file a written complaint with the U.S. Department of Education. Contact the Family Policy Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20202-5920, and keep a copy for your records.
If your kids are college aged, they need to be extra careful. College kids generally have clean credit reports and might not watch their accounts and credit reports as closely as other age groups, which makes them more of a target. Read our blog for eight tips for college kids on how to keep their identity safe.
Are you covered for identity theft?
Get Covered
Image: Unsplash