[March 27, 2013]

CSID Study on Child Identity Theft Finds Disconnect in Parent's Awareness and Action

According to a recent report from Carnegie Mellon's CyLab, the rate of identity theft is 51 times higher for children than for adults. Identity thieves steal children's social security numbers to secure loans and credit, which can go unnoticed for years, causing headaches and hardships for families and huge losses for businesses. CSID, the global leader in identity protection and fraud detection technologies and solutions, recently conducted a study to evaluate parental response. The survey results demonstrate a high degree of parental interest and awareness but a lack of action and understanding of how to prevent the misuse of children's personal information. Most notably:

• 76 percent of parents are concerned that their child's identity might be stolen
• 56 percent of parents are aware that child identity theft is a growing trend
• 14 percent of parents currently use a monitoring service to watch for fraudulent activity
• 47 percent of parents monitor their child's online activity because they are concerned the personal information they share could be misused
• 73 percent of parents listed Facebook (News - Alert) as the site they feel puts their child most at risk, even though teen traffic is moving toward platforms such as Tumblr, which only 9 percent of parents deemed risky, and Instagram, which concerns 19 percent of parents

When asked why they monitor their children's online activity, parents reported being concerned about their children viewing inappropriate content (79 percent), limiting the time they spend online (59 percent), fear of malicious software being downloaded (53 percent) and the potential their child's personal information might be misused (47 percent). Of the group concerned about misuse of personal information, 69 percent were most concerned that information shared online could lead to their child's physical whereabouts, while 18 percent were worried that their child's identity might be stolen. This data uggests that although parents are aware that child identity theft is an issue, it is low on a long list of items that concern them.

However, the results revealed that parents are willing to take action. While 52 percent of parents are not currently taking measures to prevent misuse of their child's information, 88 percent of that group stated they would be willing to take preventative measures including using a monitoring service to watch for fraudulent activity (36 percent). Additionally, 93 percent of parents said they would support local government regulations to curb child identity theft and 79 percent agree that programs that allow parents to freeze their child's credit until they are ready to use it are positive.

"Our goal is to harness this interest and willingness to act against child identity theft and arm our clients with solutions that will empower their parent consumers with the ability to help keep their children's identities from being compromised," said Bryan Hjelm, VP of Product and Marketing at CSID. "For the technologies and solutions that can monitor and protect children to be effective, it's critical to educate both parents and children about the risks associated with identity theft and exposure of information online in social networks."

CSID will be hosting and moderating a free one-hour webinar titled "Child Identity Theft: A Parenting Blind Spot" with leading security experts from uKnowKids, LookOut Social and Carnegie Mellon's CyLab on Tuesday, April 2nd at 12 pm CDT (News - Alert) addressing the growing trend of child identity theft, additional findings on parent awareness and response, and what parents and businesses can do to provide protection to this demographic and to themselves. Register now to attend the webinar.

About CSID

CSID is the leading provider of global identity protection and fraud detection technologies for businesses, their employees, and consumers. With CSID's advanced enterprise-level solutions, businesses can take a proactive approach to protecting the identities of their consumers all around the world. CSID's comprehensive identity protection products advance from credit monitoring to include a full suite of identity monitoring services; insurance and full-service restoration; identity authentication and voice biometrics; and proactive breach mitigation and resolution. For more information, visit www.csid.com.

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