 TITLE: Should You Freeze Your Child’s Credit File? CONTENT: Talk to Your Child About Credit Reports\n---------------------------------------\nDiscussing identity theft and credit reports with your child is important. \"It's part of good identity hygiene,\" says Velasquez. \"You have to educate your kids early.\"\nHere are some ways to get started:\n*   Review what credit and reports are, and why you want your child's identity to be protected against thieves.\n*   Warn your child against sharing or exposing personal identification data, and encourage them to inform you if they suspect a problem.\n*   If you've frozen your child's credit reports, explain why you did so and what it means.\n*   When your child is nearing 16 years old, prepare them to assume control. Show how to thaw the file.\n*   Teach wise credit monitoring habits and identity theft protection techniques.\nFinally, it's always a good idea to consider all potential problems that could arise when you've frozen a credit report. You don't want to prevent access when your child needs it, so if he or she is too young to have autonomy, keep a record of passwords and PINs for your chosen custodian to provide in the event you are not there to provide them. With this kind of preparation, you can be sure you've done everything possible to safeguard your child against a myriad of dangers. END