When you think of identity theft you usually think of adults who shop on the web, have bank accounts, and actively use their social security number placing it in potential places to be stolen and used for fraud. Nobody ever thinks about children and their social security numbers potentially being stolen. In reality this is a fast growing segment of the identity theft picture.

Children are easy targets for identity thieves since they have clean credit reports and since they are not using their credit it will be a long time before the fraud is discovered. Making it easy on the criminal to establish lots of credit and make large purchases over a course of potentially years making a huge financial hole that sadly kids will have a hard time recovering from.

Some of the potential danger zones for your child’s social security number include Little League teams, schools, and even estranged parents. These sources can be potential leaks of this number that is so important to the future of your child.

As parents you need to ensure that you never give the social security number of your child unless you absolutely have to. Also if you think that number is in danger of being leaked out or used by someone with bad intentions then consider signing your child up with a identity theft protection service.