Hundreds of millions of identities are exposed to identity theft each year. In a recent study, it was found that: "10.2% of children had someone else using their Social Security number. This is 51 times higher than the 0.2% rate for adults".  A child's Social Security number was used more often than an adults for a variety of reasons. A child's Social Security number is very enticing to thieves because it is unused and can be paired with any name and birth date. In addition, a child's identity can be used for years before being detected.

To know if your child has been a victim of identity theft, check to see if your child has a credit report. It is important to check all three of the credit reporting agencies as the reports are not identical.