I continue to be impressed with efforts the state government and other organizations in Ohio are taking to teach people, especially teens, about personal finances. Last week a local credit union taught teens about real life finances,which was an eye opening experience. Today the Ohio Attorney General announced that it would be running a video PSA contest for high schoolers, focused on making "Smart Money" choices.

Several suggested themes include:

• reading the fine print
• free isn't always free
• avoiding offers too good to be true
• building good credit
• preventing identity theft
• safe Internet shopping and networking

The winning public service announcement will be reproduced professionally at the Best Buy headquarters and aired throughout the state in 2009. Winning teams receive Best Buy gift cards as well as a recognition plaque and the winning school also receives a $5,000 Best Buy gift card for computer equipment. The contest is open through December 1st and the first 100 teams to enter receive a $25 gift card just for entering.

That's because of the free Web access. Apple computers, being cutting-edge, are much less useful without internet access, so its dozen-odd floor models are eternally connected to the Web. That's where the kids come in.

A decade ago, when fewer people had their own computers, if you wanted to get online when you weren't home, you had to go to an internet cafe. But today, moneyed people tote Blackberries and wifi-enabled laptops, so the American internet cafe is all but dead. Except that many high school kids are too young to have jobs and usually don't have their own laptops. So they can't get online at Starbucks or Panera Bread, like the rest of us. They go to the Apple Store, where they can borrow the computer without charge or time limit.

That's attraction enough for those too young to have private Web access (and for those with prying parents back home). But then there's the fact that most Apple computers now come with built-in cameras. Lots of kids are hitting the Apple Store just to take shots of themselves with the webcam. Facebook will take and post a shot of you directly from your profile page. In fact, one Michigan teen just started a new Facebook group called "I Only Go 2 The Apple Store To Take Photos and Put Them On Facebook." There are already 68 members.

So I was reading about a teenager who is being charged with first-degree identity theft, second-degree possession of a forged instrument and third-degree grand larceny, and I started wondering if this is a trend. Instead of shoplifting, perhaps teenagers who are drawn to crime are finding it easier to rip off someone's identity.

Based on my limited research, I'd give a cautious, "probably not." Not yet.

In the last month, there have been some interesting arrests involving identity theft in the United States, but I only found three, and it's a big country: