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How To Prevent Kids From Being Victims Of Identity Theft

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --  Educational toymaker VTech has revealed new details about the data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly five million parents and even more kids.

The company says it can't confirm whether hackers obtained photos of children and the text of their chats, but the incursion left names, birth dates, email and postal addresses, passwords, and secret questions and answer there for the taking.

VTech says it's taken measures "to defend against further attacks."

One advocacy group suggests parents and children alike should get a "credit freeze" -- even if they haven't fallen victim to financial identity theft.
Tens of millions of us have been offered free credit monitoring by Target, Home Depot, and other retailers that have suffered data breaches in recent years.

But those services only DETECT financial fraud.

Mike Litt with the US office of PennPIRG says security freezes PREVENT it.

"It's really the only way to achieve peace of mind when it comes to new account identity theft," Litt said.

Even if a thief has your Social Security number, he or she wouldn't be able to apply for new credit, a mortgage, insurance, a cell phone or other services in your name if your credit is frozen.

Litt says kids are becoming a popular target for such crime, mainly because it often goes undetected until the child applies for, say, a college loan and finds a besmirched credit report.

You'll need to request a freeze with all three credit bureaus, with prices raging from free to $10, and there are small charges to "thaw" the freeze when you need to apply for new credit.

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