"So, if you are sharing information, data, photos, documents, whatever about your children online, you are effectively damaging their privacy," said Patricia Egger, head of security at Proton.
Proton provides email and storage that doesn't track profiles or monetize data. Their intentionally creepy video, which shows a mother rocking her newborn as people appear in the nursery, illustrates that people are watching your child, starting at birth.
A child's digital identity can begin on mom and dad's phone, so think twice about what you share. A simple photo may be cute but can reveal too much.
"If you think of it as a giant puzzle, all of these different photos, whether you're at a soccer game, you're at a school, you're in front of a house - these are all puzzle pieces in your overarching digital identity that can not only tell me a lot about you, it can tell me where to find you," said Sarah Gosling, head of Cyber Resiliency and Human Defense at Wells Fargo.
Gosling says many children won't find out their identity has been stolen until they're teens, like when their student loans get denied.
Parents can prevent that by limiting what AI can learn about their child, being careful about what you ask artificial intelligence, limiting the accounts created requiring your date of birth or social security number and avoiding "sharenting."
Oversharing as a parent can not only help scammers, but AI too. This quickly builds a database bad actors can use to create a profile that looks and acts like your child.
"Think of it as a mosaic of someone's information. And so, while parents are really proud of their children, they're putting tons and tons of information about their children online. And then that can then lead to identity theft," Gosling said.
These situations can be signs that your child's identity is already being used: You get a bill in your child's name for an account that you didn't open, you're denied government benefits like healthcare coverage or nutrition assistance because someone is already using your child's social security number, you receive a notice from the IRS about income or taxes, unfamiliar mail, account notices or requests connected to your child's information.
"So don't panic, but act quickly, you need to immediately. If you got a piece of correspondence, reach out to - let's say a bill - reach out to the creditor or the company that the bill is from and inquire. You want to check to see if there is credit on the child and, if there is, you want to freeze it immediately," Gosling said.
Gosling recommends you search for your child on any of the credit agencies like Equifax or Transunion. If something pops up, freeze it until your child is an adult. Also, do your own online audit using DeleteMe or Google's Results About You and opt out. Google, Meta and TikTok all have options available.
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