Submission Number: 561789-00010 

Received: 8/30/2012 1:57:07 PM
Commenter: christine hauck
Organization: 
State: Washington

Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Initiative: 16 CFR Part 312; Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule; Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Project No. P104503
Attachments: No Attachments
Submission Text
Children have become the fastest growing population at risk for Identity Theft through the internet. With acccess to birth details, death details and information of the parents readily available on-line children are having their identities stolen and used for criminal purposes without any safegaurds to alert parents or businesses of the fraud. Because Identity Theft now covers such a broad range of behaviors I believe the only option left to protect consumers, both adults and children is to enact laws or regulation requiring credit reporting agencies to verify any information concerning credit. It is the damage to a persons credit that creates the greatest harm therefore the protections should be changing the way credit reporting agencies reporting of information. An example would be if TransUnion received notice of a 30 or 60 day late on a brand new account, TransUnion should see this as possible fraud and initiate verification of the account. Allowing credit reporting agencies to sit back and have no responsibility in the information they manage and report allows criminals to cause significant harm long before a business or consumer has notice. Credit reporting agencies report information critical to the financial stability of consumers. These reports are used in employment, housing, insurance, and consumer lending. Because credit is critical in determining the stability of a persons character, credit reporting agencies should be held to reporting only true and correct information of the actual consumer not just the consumers name. And this can only happen if the agencies verify or validate negative information prior to reporting.