According to the Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) the problem of identity fraud is on the rise in South Africa, about a 400% surge in impersonation fraud was recorded from the latest statistics in the April 2023 to April 2024 period (Kempen, 2024). These results indicate a significant increase from the 356% recorded from April 2022 to April 2023. This increase in identity theft did not only start now but it has erupted since 2020 where the number of reported identity theft cases increased, as presented in the study conducted by Smile ID about identity crimes in Africa (Smile ID, 2024). Identity theft contribute 80% on fraud attacks identified and reported. Identity is one of the important belongings of individual’s life from birth to death, even after. Identity of an individual can be defined as a means of representing who the person is physically or in a digital era. The identity includes the combination of different characteristics of a person and other personal identifiable information, such as, biometrics, national ID, driver’s license, passport that includes, name, surname, social identity number, location and more. On the other hand, identity fraud is when identity of an individual is used by another person without authorization and authentication. The terrifying findings are that not only identities for adults are affected but even for children (Betz-Hamilton, 2020), (JAVELIN, 2021). The attackers for child identity theft include known (relatives) and unknown. The study is mainly motivated by the problem and unavailability of enough and secure methods that are currently in place and are used to protect identity of children from birth to the age of 16 years. The use of the traditional birth certificate as the only identification method for children has shown to have its limitations. Although it is intended to be efficient for recognition until a child is old enough to apply for a national ID and use their biometrics, it can also be easily forged or lost. Identification of children from birth is important to combat child swapping at hospitals, child trafficking, child abduction/ theft, access to education, child identity theft for fraudulent activities and empower self-sovereign identity for children. This problem has reached epidemic proportions both in South Africa and globally (Burnes et al., 2020; Smile ID, 2024). For adults, the South African department of home affairs (DHA), issues an Identity Document (ID) card with a picture of what the adult who is linked to an identity looks like. This form of identity also comes with unique fingerprints, face and other relevant information embedded on the identification card. However, no such authentication mechanism exists for children, understandably because their facial appearance is expected to change significantly as they grow. By extension, this means that any child can be given the identity of another child, with the scary implication that it is easy to move through national borders with a stolen child. In addition, family members can open accounts or apply for other personal gain services using child’s identities without a child’s consent or authorization (Betz-Hamilton, 2023; Betz-Hamilton et al., 2024; Navarro & Higgins, 2017). This research is part of my PhD studies that is am currently perusing, to fight identity theft for children. In this study, I present a software system architecture that addresses contributes to the protection of identity of children using their biometrics, Zero Knowledge Proofs and Non-Repudiation and propose a framework for self-sovereign identity for children. - The problem of verifying the identity of children using only documents has shown its weakness. Linking biometrics (what they are) with the current forms or methods of identity, can enable authorities to verify that the presented form of identity belongs to this child. In addition, make it difficult to forge document-based identity. - Data breaches can be avoided but once an attacker target a specific victim, there are high chances of the attacker to be successful. When using biometrics this becomes a big issue since once biometric data has been compromised, it cannot be changed. However, using Zero Knowledge Proofs can protect biometric information by storing secret information and during verification, utilise challenges generated from secret information. In addition, the proposed method is got a unique feature that keeps updating the representation of biometric stored for verification. With this method, even if what is stored can be compromised, it will be no longer useful for any future use, like, once compromised, data get expired. - When a child is under the age of 18, in south Africa, parents or guardians are responsible to authorize some activities. In other cases, a child who is 7 and above need to provide a consent to authorise some activities. The challenge comes with the missing feature of “non-repudiation” for any parent or guardian responsible for authorization on behalf of a child. The proposed system includes a feature of ensuring that a parent or guardian initiating the activity is authorized by the Department of Home Affairs and cannot deny at a later stage.