5 Tips for Keeping Your Kids’ Sensitive Info off the Dark Web

What You Should Know About the Dark Web and Child Data Theft

A lot of bad things can happen to children when they’re not careful on the web. Crossing paths with a data thief is one of the worst.

Data thieves that target children aren’t sloppy prowlers. They have a very specific goal in mind: to get their hands on Social Security numbers attached to virgin credit reports. They shop for these numbers on the dark web, the Walmart of stolen data. How our kids’ details end up there is another story, but it’s usually through a data breach or our own carelessness.

Once a cybercriminal swipes a child’s number, that’s when they start inflicting the real damage. The fraudsters apply for (and default on) loans, racking up huge debts in our children’s names. The saddest thing about the situation is that it usually happens over years because, well, what parent in their right mind would be on the lookout for a fraudulent mortgage application signed by their 4-year-old?

The upshot is almost always the same. Child data theft victims don’t find out until they’re adults and trying to do “adult things,” like sign on their first apartment lease. By then their credit is already in the toilet.

Not comforting for parents to hear, I know, but as GI Joe used to say, “Knowing is half the battle.” In the case of child dark web data theft, “knowing” means versing yourself in darknet data theft basics (you can check that one off your list!) and taking a few fairly simple precautions to keep the prowlers off your kids’ devices.

How to Keep Your Children’s Data off the Dark Web

Note: We’ve numbered this list, but there’s really no order of priority here. To fully shield your kids’ data from grifters, taking these steps hand in hand works best.

1. Talk to Your Kids About Digital Safety Early

Instead of quoting you a ton of stats and figures, I’m going to tell you something that happened to me last weekend that blew my mind.

It’s 9 o’clock Friday night and I get a call from my 9-year-old daughter who’s staying at grandma’s. My mind shifts immediately into daddy emergency mode. Something bad must have happened. But, no, she just wants to tell me that she got a suspicious email on her iPad — something about a failed delivery.

Can I say that I almost cried tears of digital safety joy right there in the middle of date night? Who would have thought that all my “scammers and predators” talks would eventually pay off? But they did, folks. Educating your kids on digital safety early actually works.

Here the red flag was “failed delivery.” (It turned out to be a mailer daemon, not a UPS scam, but better safe than sorry.) The point is that our kids need to be savvy clickers. If that message from Google had been a phishing scam and my daughter had taken the bait, everything on her device could have ended up in the hands of a dark web thief. The only way our children can identify those red flags is if someone (you) teaches them.

2. Give Them Strong Passwords

Let’s go back in time to the moment you helped your child create the password for their first Gmail account. Did you just drop in some placeholder text like Brad1234 to get them started? And did they keep using Brad1234 for every other login they created in their lives: TikTok, YouTube, Instagram … socialsecurity.gov?

I understand the logic behind incredibly simple passwords. They’re easy to remember, which is really important when you’ve got multiple kids logging into multiple apps and websites. But they’re also really easy for hackers to crack.

Here’s a password solution that’s just as easy to implement, but will protect your kids from data thieves. Use passphrases (3-5 words will do). Make sure you put one number in there and try to separate the individual words with a special character like an “-” or an “*.” (That will make your passwords exponentially more difficult to crack.)

A simple-looking password like “Footage-Glorified-Refusal-Curliness8,” for example, would take a hacker 64 quindecillion years to crack. (I have no clue how long a period of time that is, but safe to say I won’t be around to suffer the consequences. “Brad1234” would take about an hour, by comparison.)

3. Limit Their Exposure to Shady Apps

App stores aren’t as safe as you’d think. Hence, all the warnings you get when you’re about to install or download a third-party app that basically say it’s not the fault of Firefox, Google, or Apple if it ends up being riddled with malware. Those warnings are for adults, by the way, who still manage to end up getting scammed all the time. Imagine how much more risky it is for kids!

But don’t worry. There’s a pretty simple fix for all of this. It’s called parental controls. I say “pretty simple” because setting up Apple’s version of parental controls is a bit tricky — with costly consequences for parents who don’t get it just right.

But as far as downloads go, the gist of parental controls is setting up a system where you’re notified any time your child tries to purchase or put an app on their devices. If you set the controls up right, they’ll need your approval every time.

Granted, you’re going to have to be paying attention when that app request notice dings on your phone. (You’ll need to take a moment to determine if it’s actually safe or not.) But that’s a small price to pay for keeping your child’s sensitive details off the dark web.

4. Get a Family VPN

The best virtual private networks (VPNs) do a few important things to keep our kids safe from dark web threats. Most have content filters (to control the kinds of content our kids are exposed to), and malware blockers (to keep shady players and their booby traps off their devices).

But a VPN’s main function is to encrypt and ensheath our online communication so that no one can decode or intercept it when it’s en route from server to server.

Combined with savvy clicking (on your kids’ end) and parental controls (on your end), investing in a family VPN will make it virtually impossible for thugs to swipe your kids’ data. If you’re into this degree of privacy on a budget, check out a NordVPN subscription.

5. Consider ID Theft Protection

We already know that when our kids’ data is stolen, the damage is unusually catastrophic because no one’s keeping tabs on their credit and the fraud often goes undetected for years.

That’s why acting the second a grifter tampers with our kids’ credit, bank accounts, or personally identifiable information (PII) is so important for us parents. The only way you can really do this is by watching their sensitive information like a hawk.

You can do this alone. You’d need to keep tabs on everyone’s credit at the three main bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) a few times a year, and regularly check for data breaches.

The problem is, those reports aren’t free after the first one. They can set you back up to $13.50 per person — or $54 per month for a four-person family. I can also assure you that checking for breaches of my family’s 400-plus passwords isn’t something I want to spend my Sundays doing.

The other (safer and cheaper) route is to place your family’s data under the wing of a credible ID theft protection service that will do the watching for you. To put those costs into perspective, even the most comprehensive family ID theft protection won’t run you more than $25 per month. Some cheaper ID theft plans cost less than $10 per month.

But the real edge ID theft providers give you in the battle against child data theft is that they trawl the dark web 24/7 for your leaked data. If your sensitive details ever end up there, you’ll get an instant alert. Even the most vigilant parent can’t compete with that kind of protection.

Final Thoughts

The dark web began in 1971 as an experiment in privacy. Today, the vast majority of its 2 million daily users prefer it for that reason. However, the bad actors who do haunt the dark web inflict outsize damage and cast a pretty wide net. Even if they’re not legion, their breaches and scams are.

Our kids are particularly vulnerable here. That’s because they’re not very good at identifying digital threats like data thieves all by themselves. If that sounds like a battle we parents can’t win, it’s not. We actually have powerful tools to combat child data theft.

Common sense precautions like digital safety awareness and parental monitoring will really go a long way here. But if you want complete protection, consider a little extra outside help from a quality VPN or ID theft protection service.