New backpack? Check. Fresh sneakers? Check. Seventeen new passwords your kid will immediately forget? Probably.
Back-to-school season once meant labeling boxes and memorizing locker combinations. For today’s Gen Alpha students, it also means logging into school platforms, downloading apps, joining group chats, gaming with friends and generally spending a large chunk of life online.
That makes safeguarding their digital identity an increasingly important addition to the back-to-school checklist to limit child identity theft.
Gen Alpha Has a Lot to Lose Online
Your teenager probably doesn’t have a mortgage or a stack of credit cards. That doesn’t mean an identity thief has nothing to gain.
Names, birth dates, addresses, passwords and Social Security numbers all have value. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warns that identity thieves sometimes target children’s SSNs because fraudulent activity may go unnoticed for years.
The problem is that a child may not discover the damage until years later, when they apply for their first apartment, student loan or credit card.
Their Social Life Is a Data Trail
Gen Alpha isn’t just online. Much of their social world is online.
Gaming profiles, social accounts, group chats and apps can reveal usernames, birthdays, locations, interests, friends and other personal details. Recent studies specifically identified social media and online gaming as environments that can expose children to scams and other cyber risks.
That doesn’t mean pulling the Wi-Fi plug until graduation. It means teaching kids to think about personal information the same way they think about money: don’t hand it over just because someone asks.
Think Before Posting That First-Day Photo
Parents contribute to the digital trail, too.
That classic first-day-of-school photo can accidentally reveal a child’s name, age, grade, school, teacher or location. Before posting, look at the picture like a stranger would. Crop out school logos, avoid signs containing identifying details and check who can actually view a post.
Privacy around children’s data has become important enough that the Federal Trade Commission strengthened its children’s online privacy protections in 2025, including new limits on how companies can collect, use and monetize certain data from children under 13.
Make Scam Awareness Part of the Talk
“Don’t talk to strangers” gets complicated when the stranger looks like a classmate, gamer or social media account.
Teach teens to be cautious about unexpected links, password-reset messages, giveaways, requests for verification codes and people asking for personal photos or information.
The risks can also extend far beyond identity theft. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children recently reported continued increases in sextortion reports involving children and teens, another reminder that online impersonation and manipulation can have very real consequences.
Most importantly, make sure kids know they can tell you when something feels wrong without assuming the first response will be taking away their phone.
Make Digital Safety Part of the Routine
Back-to-school season is a good reminder to revisit passwords, privacy settings and the information your family shares online. A few simple conversations now can help teens build smarter digital habits — and better protect the identity they’ll carry with them long after the school year ends.
Detect it early. Restore it fully. Never face it alone.