Tennessee Consumer Affairs Urges Parents To Protect Children From Identity Fraud

Nashville, TN – The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance’s Consumer Affairs Division encourages parents to celebrate Universal Children’s Day on Friday, November 20th by learning to protect children from identity fraud.

While the Tennessee Privacy of School Records Laws, Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-504 (2015), generally protect the privacy of student records, parents should adopt some good habits in their everyday lives to help safeguard their children.

For example:

• Don’t share your child’s Social Security number unless it is to a trusted party.
• Keep your child’s personal information (name, birth certificate, school paperwork) in a safe, secure location.
• Shred any outdated documents containing your child’s personal information before throwing them away.
• When asked for your child’s personal information, don’t be afraid to ask questions: “How will this information be used?”, “Who will have access?”, “How will it be kept safe?” and “Can I opt out?”
• Look for possible warning signs of identity theft such as your child receiving credit card applications.

In addition to building these good identity-theft protection habits, Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-18-2111 gives parents or legal guardians the ability to enact a security freeze on persons under 16 years of age.

Generally, when the freeze is in place, consumer reporting agencies (e.g. TransUnion, Equifax, Experian) cannot release that person’s credit report, or any other information derived from the report, regarding that person unless the security freeze is removed.

For more consumer tips, visit www.tn.gov/consumer.