Your Child Has a Credit Score. They Shouldn’t.
Child identity fraud happens when someone uses a minor’s Social Security number to open credit accounts, take out loans, or file tax returns. It is uniquely destructive because it can run silently for years. A child has no credit to check, no monthly statements to review, and no suspicious charges to flag. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, one in every 50 children in the United States falls victim each year, and on average, the fraud goes undetected for 12 years.
What Does That Mean to You as a Parent?
It means your child could be carrying debt they did not create before they are old enough to drive. A college financial aid application, a first apartment lease, or a student loan could all be derailed by a credit history your teenager never knew existed. In roughly 60 percent of cases, the perpetrator is someone the child or family knows, which means the fraud often starts closer to home than any parent wants to believe.
Your Child’s Data Has Already Been Compromised and Has Left Them Vulnerable
Two of the largest data breaches in education history have already put children’s personal information into criminal hands. A hacker compromised PowerSchool’s student information system — used by more than 18,000 schools — exposing an estimated 62 million student records, including Social Security numbers and medical information. Separately, the hacking group ShinyHunters penetrated the Canvas learning management system, claiming 3.65 terabytes of data tied to roughly 275 million users. Two platforms’ families had no say in choosing; hundreds of millions of children’s records were exposed. If your child attends school in the United States, the question is no longer whether their information has been compromised — it is what someone is going to do with it.
How Proactive Detection Catches It Early
Children have no credit activity, which means traditional credit monitoring has nothing to watch. That is exactly the blind spot criminals exploit. A stolen SSN can circulate on the dark web for years without triggering a single alert from any standard monitoring service. LibertyID’s proactive monitoring fills that gap with dark web surveillance that scans for your child’s SSN across criminal marketplaces and data dumps. If that number surfaces, you get an alert in time to freeze their credit and request an IRS Identity Protection PIN before anyone can use it. Children under 18 are covered under LibertyID’s family membership, so there is no separate plan and no additional cost.
When It Slips Through: How Restoration Untangles the Damage
Resolving child identity fraud is more complex than most adult cases. A minor cannot dispute accounts on their own, and parents must navigate creditor disputes, credit bureau procedures built for adults, and law enforcement reports at the same time. A LibertyID restoration advocate handles the entire process from start to finish so the family can focus on the family.
The Bottom Line
Your child’s Social Security number is a valuable commodity, and two massive school-system breaches have already proven how easily that data can end up in criminal hands. LibertyID gives you proactive detection to catch the threat early and fully managed restoration to untangle the damage if it happens, all under one family membership.
Detect it early. Restore it fully. Never face it alone.