Can thieves steal a child's identity? What every parent needs to know

Yes — and it happens far more often than most parents realize. Children are actually prime targets precisely because nobody checks their credit. A thief can use your child's Social Security number for years before anyone finds out.

Why children are such easy targets

It sounds backward — why steal the identity of someone who has no money and no credit history? That's exactly the point. A child's Social Security number is a blank slate. There are no existing credit accounts attached to it, no one monitoring it, and no reason for anyone to check it for years. A thief can open credit cards, take out loans, or even secure housing under your child's name and operate completely undetected until your child turns 18 and applies for their first credit card or apartment.

The numbers back this up. According to the FTC, child identity theft surged 40% between 2021 and 2024. Research from Javelin Strategy found that roughly 1.25 million American children were victims of identity theft and fraud in a single recent year. And because the theft goes undetected for so long, the average cost to families when it is finally discovered runs over $1,100 — not counting the time and stress of cleaning it up.

Who is stealing children's identities?

This is the part that surprises most parents: the thief is usually not a faceless hacker. Research consistently shows that in the majority of child identity theft cases, the perpetrator is someone the child knows — often a family member.

According to SafeHome.org, nearly 75% of identity theft victims know their perpetrators. In the case of children, that frequently means a parent, stepparent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or family friend who has easy access to the child's Social Security card and birth certificate. The story of Axton Betz-Hamilton — who discovered as a young adult that her own mother had been using her identity since childhood to rack up debt — is not an isolated case. It is a documented pattern.

Outside the family, the other major sources of child identity theft are:

• Data breaches at schools — schools store enormous amounts of student data including SSNs, medical records, and home addresses. The 2024 breach of the PowerSchool platform, used by thousands of school districts, exposed student and staff records nationwide.
• Social media and gaming platforms — children share personal information freely online. Javelin research identified Twitch, Twitter (now X), and Facebook as the three most common platforms for child identity theft.
• Medical identity theft — a child's insurance information can be used to bill for medical services they never received, leaving a confusing paper trail that can affect their coverage for years.
• Synthetic identity fraud — thieves combine a real child's SSN with a fake name and date of birth to create an entirely new "person." This synthetic identity is then used to slowly build credit over months or years before a large fraudulent purchase is made.

How does child identity theft go undetected for so long?

The simple answer: nobody checks. Adults regularly encounter situations that reveal identity theft — a credit card is declined, a loan application is rejected, a credit report shows something strange. Children have none of these touchpoints.

The average duration between when a child's identity is stolen and when it is discovered is 12 years. That means a theft that occurs when a child is six years old may not come to light until they are 18 — often when they apply for their first student loan or try to rent their first apartment. At that point, cleaning up years of fraudulent accounts, court judgments, and delinquencies is a serious, time-consuming process.

Warning signs that your child's identity may have been stolen

Most of these signs won't appear until your child is older, which is exactly why early monitoring matters. Watch for these red flags:

• Your child receives pre-approved credit card offers or loan solicitations in the mail
• Your child receives collection calls or debt collection letters
• Your child is denied government benefits because benefits are already being claimed under their SSN
• The IRS notifies you that your child's SSN was already used on a tax return
• Your child's health insurance claim is rejected because their coverage appears to be maxed out
• When your child turns 18 and checks their credit, accounts already exist that they never opened

How to protect your child's identity — a practical checklist

What to do if your child's identity has already been stolen

If you discover fraudulent accounts or a credit file that should not exist, move quickly. The longer fraudulent accounts remain open, the more damage accumulates.

1. File a report at IdentityTheft.gov. The FTC's site will generate a personalized recovery plan and official Identity Theft Report, which you will need when disputing accounts.
2. Place a fraud alert and credit freeze at all three bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. A fraud alert is free and lasts one year. A freeze is also free and stays in place until you lift it.
3. Contact every creditor with a fraudulent account. Provide your FTC Identity Theft Report and request the account be closed and the fraudulent charges removed. Keep records of every call and letter.
4. File a police report if the theft was committed by a family member or if creditors require one to close accounts.
5. Consider hiring a recovery service. If the damage is extensive, services like IDShield — which assigns licensed private investigators to your case — can handle the creditor calls and dispute letters on your behalf.

The bottom line

Child identity theft is not a rare edge case — it is a documented, growing problem affecting roughly one in fifty children every year. The reason it is so damaging is the same reason it is so attractive to thieves: nobody checks. A credit freeze at all three bureaus costs nothing and stops the problem cold. Doing that today, combined with careful handling of your child's SSN and monitoring through a family identity protection plan, gives your child the strongest possible protection before they ever encounter the financial system on their own.