Study finds one in 43 US children had data exposed

One in 43 U.S. children had personal information breached through an online compromise or hack in a single year, according to Javelin's 2024 Child & Family Cybersecurity Study. By age 13, parents will have posted an average of 1,300 photos and videos of their child to social media. Sarah Gosler said oversharing details about kids online can be a goldmine for fraudsters. She said child identity theft is a serious and often overlooked problem that often goes undetected for years, especially since most parents aren't monitoring their children's credit or account history. Kids have clean credit histories, which can make them prime targets for criminals trying to create a credit profile or open accounts, Gosler said. More than half of child identity fraud victims had mobile numbers and login credentials reused across financial and nonfinancial accounts soon after compromise. No factual disputes were found in the available record. Coverage notes parents can check whether a credit file exists in a child's name and can consider a credit freeze.