Parents…are your children on Facebook? We look at what this could mean for them, for you and for your credit file.
By Graham Doessel, Founder and CEO of MyCRA Credit Rating Repairs and www.fixmybadcredit.com.au.
An alarming statistic was revealed by a leading West Australian newspaper on Sunday on the possible number of WA children on Facebook who were under 13.
The Sunday Times revealed in its article “Facebook offers up 150,000 West Australian kids” Perth Now, March 3, 2012 that the Facebook advertising database claims it can reach more than 170,000 children in WA under the age of 13.
“Facebook allows users access to its database statistics if they’re planning to advertise on their website.
It says advertisers wanting to target young teens in WA could reach an estimated 177,220 users aged 13 or under.
Facebook doesn’t let users sign up unless they claim to be over 13. But users often give away their true age by listing information such as the primary school they attend,” the article says.
This is a global issue. A U.S. Facebook study released in June last year, showed that of the 20 million children on Facebook who actively used the social networking site in the past year, 7.5 million—or more than one-third—were younger than 13 and not supposed to be able to use the site.
“Among young users, more than 5 million were 10 and under, and their accounts were largely unsupervised by their parents,” the report revealed.
It also revealed that one million children on Facebook were harassed, threatened, or subjected to other forms of cyber-bullying in the past year.
So what’s happening with our kids? Are they all accessing Facebook in secret? Or are we simply letting them do it – despite government and even Facebook advice to the contrary?
Apart from the grave dangers of sexual predators and cyber-bullies for our children – we are become more vulnerable to identity theft and being slapped with a bad credit score as a result.
Identity crime is the fastest growing crime in Australia, according to the Australian Crime Commission. It was reported by former Attorney General Robert McLelland’s office last year, that identity theft affects one in six Australians in some way.
It’s time to all get a better understanding of the internet. Those who don’t apply meaningful cyber-security measures at home are putting themselves at risk of identity theft, and simply threatening the family’s good credit rating.
We cannot let our young children have free reign of the computer, regardless of how ‘tech-savvy’ they are.
Here’s what can happen to anyone, let alone children:
We can download viruses, participate in scams, release credit card details and disclose personal information and passwords to criminals which can be used to extract money or take out credit in people’s names.
This can happen through Facebook, it can happen via email, and it can happen via very legitimate looking websites.
If millions of Australian parents have been fooled, what chance do these 177,000 children under 13 have? That’s what the cyber-crooks are banking on.
Don’t know the first thing about the internet? If your child does – you need to get to know about it!
The amount of personal information that many young people have freely available for viewing on Facebook is frightening. That can be information about them, or it can also be about friends and family.
We may say it is harmless, but what’s to say fraudsters can’t sit on that information and wait until their victims come of age to commit fraud in their name? In fact, authorities say it is happening – they even have a name, it’s called ‘data warehousing’.
Superintendant Brian Hay from the Queensland Fraud Squad told Channel 7’s Sunrise Program in October last year, that criminals were targeting the personal information of our young Facebook users. and storing the personal information until they turn 18.
“We know that the crooks have been data warehousing identity information, we know that they’ve been building search engines to profile and build identities,” he told Sunrise.
Most identity theft victims have no idea they have given away personal information to fraudsters until it is too late. If identity fraud sees accounts in the victim’s name going undetected and unpaid past 60 days, the parent’s credit file can be ruined for 5-7 years due to defaults.
It need not be major fraud to be a massive blow to the identity theft victim – leading to a bad credit score. Unpaid accounts for as little as $100 can lead to a bad credit score and have the same impact on getting a loan. So any misuse of someone’s credit file can be extremely significant.
For parents who want to educate themselves about the risks of cyber-crime, the Government has put together the CyberSmart website, encouraging parents and kids to be aware of the dangers the internet may pose for children. A Cyber Smart fact-sheet for this age group recommends the close monitoring of all children’s internet use.
And importantly, if young people of any age are on Facebook, educate them and yourself about what that could mean for them and for you.
If people suspect identity theft has affected their credit file, they can contact MyCRA Credit Rating Repairs www.mycra.com.au or call tollfree on 1300 667 218 for help restoring their good name and clearing their bad credit score following identity theft.
