Your youngster’s first knowledge breach could occur earlier than they’ve even opened a checking account. Right here’s find out how to maintain their digital life secure.
03 Jun 2026
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6 min. learn
Once we speak about cybersecurity and digital security within the context of our kids, it’s typically framed in considered one of two methods. Both it’s about inappropriate or unsafe content material – of the type that COPPA is supposed to manage within the US. Or it’s about managing the psychological and social impacts of extreme display time. However there’s an elephant within the room.
Our children are uncovered to most of the similar identification, privateness, and knowledge safety dangers as their dad and mom. In reality they could be much more in danger. Serving to them perceive find out how to shield their knowledge and on-line accounts at an early age is an more and more vital parental duty.
Why do individuals need my youngsters’ knowledge?
Our kids are digital natives. From an early age they could have logins to high school accounts, gaming profiles, cloud pictures, well being information, and accounts with quite a lot of different apps. All of those include probably profitable knowledge for identification thieves.
Why is that this data a preferred goal? As a result of from a fraud perspective it has a comparatively lengthy shelf life. Which means, if it’s stolen and utilized by a scammer to open a brand new line of credit score, it’s unlikely the sufferer would discover out, till maybe they apply for his or her first mortgage a few years later. What’s extra, it’ll have a pristine credit score rating, that means the fraudulent software will possible sail by way of unchecked. Fraudsters would possibly use it as is, or mix it with made-up data to create artificial identities.
The emergence of AI instruments has made it far simpler to spin up these faux identities. They may be tougher for firms to identify. However once they do lastly flag fraud, the affect in your youngster’s credit score historical past might be extreme.
These aren’t theoretical dangers. One report reveals the story of threat and compliance skilled Renata Galvão, whose identification was stolen on the age of six and used to run up debt in extra of $400,000. It reportedly took her over twenty years to clear her identify and restore her credit standing. In one other case, Axton Betz-Hamilton was 11 when her identification was stolen and used to rack up 1000’s of {dollars} in unpaid bank card payments. She solely came upon when making use of to arrange her first utility invoice at school.
Present knowledge is tough to come back by, however the FTC claims that youngster identification theft elevated by 40% between 2021 and 2024.
What might go incorrect?
Kids’s knowledge is in danger in different methods. Children may be digitally savvy sufficient to arrange on-line accounts, however they’re not at all times security-smart. They could be extra vulnerable to fall for a phishing message; particularly if it seems to be despatched from a trusted authority or good friend. Too-good-to-be-true gives, innocuous-looking quizzes and FOMO-type advertisements are all extra more likely to hit residence if the goal is a credulous 13-year-old reasonably than a skeptical grownup. Children are additionally extra more likely to unwittingly obtain malware onto their gadgets or share their passwords and private information with their friends, compounding safety threat.
But it surely’s not simply our kids who characterize a possible weak hyperlink within the safety chain. Analysis from the College of Southampton final yr discovered that just about half (45%) of oldsters commonly share details about their youngsters on-line. Sharenting like this will increase the danger of it falling into the fingers of fraudsters. Round one-in-six youngsters have already skilled at the least one type of digital hurt, together with cyberbullying, privateness breaches, or identification misuse, the research claimed.
There’s additionally a rising threat that the edtech distributors, college platforms, gaming suppliers, sensible toy makers, social media firms and different companies entrusted together with your youngster’s knowledge are themselves breached. The non-profit Id Theft Useful resource Middle (ITRC) tracked 3322 knowledge breaches within the US final yr – an all-time excessive and a 79% enhance from 5 years in the past. Almost 279 million victims had their knowledge uncovered, with the healthcare and schooling sectors among the many prime 5 for breaches.
The proliferation of AI apps can be a privateness threat. Children could use AI instruments with no understanding that they’re truly sharing delicate data which might find yourself within the incorrect fingers if the supplier is breached.
Gaming accounts are one other engaging goal for fraudsters. They include extremely prized property resembling:
- Your bank card/monetary data, for use in fraud
- Social graphs that can be utilized to spam/phish different youngsters in the identical community
- Skins, which might be stolen and cashed out
- Personal chats which can include monetizable data
All of which creates a big potential floor on your youngster’s private data to be uncovered.
How one can examine if one thing’s gone incorrect
There are a number of methods to examine in case your youngster has had their identification or private data (together with credentials) stolen. The next ought to all be purple flags:
- Passwords that out of the blue don’t work, indicating somebody has accessed their account and altered the logins
- Lacking skins, cash or different gadgets in your youngster’s gaming account
- Notifications about account modifications, logins or resets
- Purchases that you just didn’t authorize
- Mates and contacts reporting unusual exercise or messages out of your youngster’s account
- Your youngster is denied welfare advantages (as a result of another person is utilizing their Social Safety particulars)
- They’re denied a pupil mortgage or checking account because of a poor credit standing
- Your youngster receives a authorities discover claiming unpaid taxes (as a result of somebody is utilizing their particulars to register for brand new jobs)
- You obtain telephone calls or correspondence claiming overdue payments run up by your youngster
It’s a shared duty
In reality, there are a number of stakeholders concerned in defending your youngsters’s identification knowledge. Dad and mom are the obvious. But in addition your college, and the app builders and system makers they’re typically compelled to share data with. No single social gathering can handle and safe your complete knowledge lifecycle.
So what are you able to do as a guardian? Restrict knowledge sharing, securely configure account settings, and educate your youngster greatest practices.
Begin with the information. Take a step again and think about whether or not it actually is critical to arrange that new account, grant permissions to that college app, or “sharent” on-line. Information minimization is among the core rules of the GDPR. The much less private data is on the market, the decrease the danger of it ending up within the incorrect fingers.
Subsequent, for the accounts they do have, regulate the settings to reduce threat. Which means lengthy, robust and distinctive passwords for each account, saved in a household password supervisor. That may cut back the danger of brute-force assaults. Swap on multifactor authentication (MFA) the place doable to mitigate phishing dangers.
Evaluate all of the privateness settings on all their apps and social platforms to lock them right down to essentially the most safe model. That ought to imply location sharing/monitoring is restricted or turned off. Prohibit any in-app purchases in order that they require your approval. Hold all gadgets and apps up to date in order that they’re much less uncovered to hacking makes an attempt. And use in-app parental controls the place obtainable to watch utilization and decrease delicate knowledge sharing.
Apply for a credit score freeze on your youngster’s identification with all three main credit score bureaus. This can require some paperwork, however is price it for the peace of thoughts meaning no third social gathering can apply for credit score of their identify.
Lastly, it’s time to sit down down together with your youngsters and clarify the significance of identification safety, what’s at stake, and the way unhealthy individuals can steal and use their knowledge – together with common phishing ways. Educate them the fundamentals of excellent password administration, and find out how to spot suspicious exercise on-line. Above all, they need to really feel secure telling you something.
Protecting your youngster’s identification secure shouldn’t be about proscribing their digital world. It’s about giving them the boldness to traverse it safely – now and sooner or later.
