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Parents have a new tool to help protect their kids financial future.  As Matt Galka tells us, a new law that went into effect this month will prevent an identity thief from messing up a child’s credit.

Identity theft is a crime that plagues Florida more than any other state in the country.  Someone gets a hold of a social security number or vital information, opens up credit cards or loans, and ruins someone financially. The act is even worse when it happens to a kid.

“Up to 50,000 children in Florida alone have had this happen to them,” said Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

Putnam pushed for a new law to help parents protect their children’s identities.  Starting this month, Mom and Dad can freeze Junior’s credit until they’re old enough to start using it.

“Those that we’ve seen exploited the most are kids already in the system.  People who’s files are passed around frequently, kids in foster care, or other types of circumstances where a lot of people have access to their sensitive information,” said Putnam.

Children are targeted because they have a clean credit report.  A fraudster can open up credit cards in a child’s name and it could take years before anyone notices.

Identity theft investigations start with local law enforcement.

“Kids can be targeted because we’re all assigned social security numbers when we’re very young, so yes kids can be,” said Tallahassee Police Officer Dave Northway.

The old law only allowed adults to put a freeze on their credit. It now costs parents $10 bucks to do it for their kids. You can log on to www.freshfromflorida.com/protectyourchild for more info.