NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A new Tennessee law can help parents “freeze out” out ID thieves and scammers aiming to pilfer the private information of teens or the information of a person to whom a guardian or conservator has been appointed.
Passed by the General Assembly earlier this year, Tenn. Code Ann. § 47-18-2111 gives parents or legal guardians the ability to enact a security freeze on persons under 16 years of age or an incapacitated person under the care of a guardian or conservator. When the freeze is in place, consumer reporting agencies (e.g. TransUnion, Equifax, Experian) cannot release that person’s credit report or any other information regarding that person unless the security freeze is removed.
This prevents others from requesting information, but it may also prevent you from allowing others to access that information quickly should that become necessary in the future.
In order to enact a freeze, the requestor must have valid proof of identification and contact the consumer reporting agency directly to request that the freeze be put in place. As the protected consumer’s representative, the requestor must submit sufficient proof of both your identification and the identification of the protected consumer. You must also provide sufficient proof of authority to act on behalf of the protected consumer and pay the fee, if any, charged by the agency.
The law applies to credit reporting agencies and not consumer report monitoring services.