Today people have more emphasis on protecting their Identities due to the number of identities being stolen. We check our credit from the three bureaus regularly, make sure we shread all of our personal information and mail, and we don't give out personal information to others. But what about our children?

It is estimated that 400,000 children per year have their identity stolen, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Most of them unsuspecting victims they apply for credit or when a credit check is run for employment.

Here are a few ways to protect your children from future harm and headache:

  • Insist that kids never provide personal information to strangers on or off line. That includes phone numbers, addresses, age, school, gender, hobbies or interests. Kids should always use a screen name, rather than their real name on social networking sites. Likewise their email address shouldn't include their real name.

Posting personal photos isn't a good idea. Nor is posting photos with identifying info including, say, a t-shirt emblazoned with your high school name or a photo with a your house and home address number in the background.

  • Be sure you know who is receiving instant messages you send. Under the supervision of a parent, kids should exchange email addresses in person, rather than online.
  • If something inappropriate happens online, kids should report it immediately to parents. Parents can also use CyberTipLine.com and report suspicious activity to the police.
  • Kids and adults should always be alert to Internet scams and protect themselves and computers with software that thwarts spyware, spam and viruses.
  • Parents should know kids' passwords and screen names. They also should learn Internet lingo such as POS: parent over shoulder.
  • Parents should monitor their kids' online activity to be available should a site ask for personal information -- like a last name or address -- to make sure the child doesn't provide the information.
  • Parents shouldn't ignore junk mail in a child's name. Parents should react to kids getting credit cards promotions in the mail as a red flag. It's time to pull the kid's credit report.
  • Parents should put magazine subscriptions in the parent's name to keep the kids' names off mailing lists.
  • Don't let kids carry their Social Security cards or numbers with them -- nor should parents. Keep cards and numbers in a safe place at home.
  • Check for an earnings statement for your kids from the Social Security Administration. Unless your child has earned Social Security taxed income, there should be no earning associated with his Social Security number. You can sign up to have an annual Social Security earnings statement sent to you.