How do I protect my child from identity theft?

Your child's government benefits will be tied to their Social Security number, so it's important to protect their information to prevent their identity from being used by another person. Various services can provide credit monitoring and flag any potential identity theft.

If your child's Social Security number has been used by someone else, you may want to do credit freezes at each of the credit bureaus. It's easy to set up online.

You should also notify the government at IdentityTheft.gov.

For someone over 18, you can also put a freeze on their Social Security number so that no one can apply for instant credit anywhere. It's a bit of a hassle if they ever want to apply for something themselves, but you still can; it just won't be immediate.