While the credit bureaus sit on their hands when it comes to child identity theft, one state has legislation that gives parents a tool to prevent it from happening to their child.

When a child's identity is stolen, criminals can use their identity to buy homes, open new lines of credit, commit grand theft auto, and qualify for medical and government benefits. A recent study found that one in 10 kids has his or her identity stolen by the age of 18.

Child identity theft is one of the worst forms of identity theft because it often goes unchecked and unnoticed for years. Then when your kid goes off to college, suddenly he or she can't get loans or qualify under FAFSA because supposedly they're 37 year old and defaulted on a mortgage!

Now Maryland has signed into effect the nation's first law requiring the bureaus to have a procedure where you as parent can establish a credit identity in your child's name and then freeze it until they become an adult.

Really when you get down to it, the bureaus shouldn't wait for the states to take action with such an easy solution. But Experian, Equifax and TransUnion don't care about your kids or you!

In addition, AllClearID.com is now offering a new free service called ChildScan. The service combs through credit records, employment records, criminal records and medical accounts to find out if a crook has been using your kid's Social Security number.