Are your clients’ children a source of identity risk?

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Are your clients’ children a source of identity risk?

Ensure clients follow these 6 steps to protect their children from identity theft.

Marilyn Horrick on November 3, 2011

Your clients may take every caution to avoid offending or exposing themselves to identity-related risks, but as their children enter high school or university, these students can unwittingly be the source of identity theft risks, which can be a costly exposure for today’s clients.

While parents have learned to be cautious of the digital world, today’s students know no other life. Many assume all things digital are safe. Their lives take place on-line with texts, tweets, and friending.

Providing students with a few helpful tips could prevent identity theft scenarios from occurring. Here’s a quick and handy checklist for your clients so they can give their children direction and help avoid costly identity theft exposure.

1) Parents should monitor social networking – while teens are craving popularity, remind them not to be friending people they don’t know. Help them establish privacy settings on their pages and remind them never to reveal home addresses, phone numbers, or other identifying information.

2) Texting seems to be an obsession for today’s teens. Make sure they are not engaged in cyber-bullying which can result in legal liability exposure to your clients

3) Teach your kids about passwords. Every password should be at least 10 characters long and should be a combination of letters (upper and lowercase), numbers and special characters.

Dogs, names, birthdays and addresses are easy to remember but also easy to guess, so avoid using them. Instead, use something only they would know: childhood friend’s name, street you grew up on, etc. and include a number or punctuation mark. Set the password for your child – this way you will know it as well.
Password protect phones, computers, accounts and files wherever possible. With kids, phones will be lost – and with the phone all of their contact information as well as that of their friends.
Change the passwords regularly using unique passwords each time – don’t just append a number to the end.

4) Kidnapping risks should not be ignored. With location sharing and tracking apps readily available, it is simple for unwanted stalking to occur.

5) No one should ever email personal information to unknown parties—even if they profess to be a prince or a celebrity.

6) The social networks that kids love can also be used for nefarious purposes. A bit of research might reveal some very good reasons for uninstalling even the most popular social apps.

While these measures won’t eliminate risks, they will go a long way to reducing them. They will also help create awareness with your clients and their children of their roles in being risk responsible.

Marilyn Horrick is assistant vice president, Chubb Personal Insurance, Chubb Insurance Company of Canada.

Please note: The views, information and content expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Chubb Insurance Company of Canada or of any of The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. The information provided should not be relied on as legal advice or a definitive statement of the law in any jurisdiction. For such advice, you should consult your own legal counsel.