Convert existing Apple ID to Child Apple ID

Go to :

https://appleid.apple.com/account/home

Login

Go to Password and Security - enter in the Security questions

Scroll to the bottom and it will let you select a birthday.

Change B-day to something in 2001

Then enable family sharing on the parent ipad/iphone in the settings.

Add the account to family sharing on the parent device,then enter settings and turn on "ask to buy"

I am going through the same thing. It's extremely aggravating not being able to control my 13 and 10 year olds accounts because it lists them as adults. If I create a new child's account it will just cause mass confusion because of all the purchases I've already made through their accounts. Apple needs to fix this with the update.

I found a way around this!!!! I was able log into the account and change the birthday to make it so my child was "13" and then you can turn on "ask to buy" I can not change it to the actual dates, but it works the same way 🙂

I need to do this as well. The only option I've come up with would be creating new Apple IDs for them and importing their few contacts, etc., from the old one to the new one. Really don't want to do that though, as I set them up good email addresses the first time around and I don't want them to lose those. Kind of frustrating. Hopefully a fix is coming soon.

That doesn't work if the child is under 13. You just get an error stating that you can not change the birthday at this time.

I just spent some time with Apple Support and while they didn't give me a solution, I figured out the answer.

Apple doesn't allow anyone under the age of 13 to create their own Apple ID. For Family sharing they created a sub-set ID system to allow an adult to create a minor iCloud ID for the child.

In short, you have to create a new ID via Family Sharing, an option on your iPhone at the bottom of the Family settings "Create an Apple ID for a child". If you had a pre-Family Sharing child account, in which you had to make up a birthday of 13 or older (like I did but had forgotten), you must abandon it. There is not way to convert it. I'm hoping I can delete it, and then add the address as an alias in the new child account.

It *****, but it's currently the only way. Please do as I did and submit feedback, expressing your aggravation to Apple here https://www.apple.com/feedback/

jmvdkolk wrote:

Please tell me how to submit an Apple feature request. If there is such an option anywhere on the Apple website, it is well hidden. The support people will not record feature requests either.

Apple.com/feedback

The iCould feed back page is here; https://www.apple.com/feedback/icloud.html

I've used it many times and most of the (reasonable) feature request I asked for have come to fruition in time. They do listen if enough people request a given feature.

Please remember that in the opinion of Apple, they opened up iCloud to under 13 years of age by doing this. Theoretically all under 13 year old accounts should be new. I feel they short sighted themselves by thinking 13 is old enough to have unfettered access to my credit card. I think you should be able to add "ask to buy" to anyone on the family share plan that isn't the card owner.

Remember this isn't about ethics, it's about program development hindered by legalese. It's not personal.

"1) I don't want my wife to use my credit card to buy stuff she wants on itunes... she can pay for that her self."

Then she can still purchase using her own card with her own Apple ID, nothing changes there. Family share allows them to use your credit card, they don't have too. It also turns on GPS tagging, a Family shared Calendar and a couple other handy features we've all worked around in the past.

"2) why can I only set up a new kids ID with an @icloud.com ???, "

This was covered earlier in the thread as it is the actual subject of this thread. You must be 13 and older to legally create a Apple ID. You can NOT convert an account because, theoretically, there are no under age 13 account holders. It's a security measure to prevent kids from tricking the system. The catch is that to use the "Ask to buy" feature, the family member must be a child account which can only be created through Family Sharing and under the age of 13. What we want isn't a conversion, it's to allows to impose the "Ask to Buy" feature on any/all Family Members associated with your family sharing plan. If you want to help submit Apple iCloud feedback here; https://www.apple.com/feedback/icloud.html

"3) We do what to find each others phones where that get lost but we don;t want to upgrade them all the the latest OSX version

In the past we just had to have them all under my account. I worked."

Family sharing only works with iOS 8, so you can't use it unless you update. So... yeah.

What family Sharing does do, is provide a "Legal" means to share apps and purchases (with developer permission). If you share your Apple purchases on a Device that is not yours and used by you as the ID owner, you are outside your terms and conditions. It also provides a way for children under 13 to have their own account so they can enjoy all the features of iCloud such as iCloud keychain, Tabs, Messages, FaceTime, and other features that they can't have without an account.

Hi bryans83,

If a child’s birthday on their Apple ID account had previously been entered incorrectly when setting up Family Sharing, you can now change that birthdate by following the information in the article below.

Update the birth date associated with your Apple ID - Apple Support

Take care,

Alex H.

Unfortunately, if the original age was under 13, you can not change it:

Be sure to enter your correct birthdate. After you change it to any age below 13, you can't edit it. Learn more about Apple IDs for children.

...when setting up one of my kids accounts on my iPhone, the Year scrolled up as I hit 'Done' so now my 8 yr old is '2'. Not really a problem for now, but it certainly will be as she gets older. 😟

Well I'm sure people don't like lying, I don't like it. But tell that to the child who will lose two years of game centre progress. I can understand why folk resort to it - because the service provider (Apple) has failed to meet their customer needs.

My children have 'blank' iCloud accounts - no age added so no Store access - they just have access to iCloud, iMessage/ Game Centre. Then I sign in as Dad to download anything and all their apps are associated with my ID. Looks like I cannot take advantage of the new features, which is a shame, until either:

• Apple allow for the change to account
• My children reach 13
• We abandon all their Games etc progress and issue them with new Apple ID's

I am however, delighted to see this new feature. Once things like this are ironed out and for future use it's a very welcome addition indeed.

Best wishes...

I just got off the phone with Apple Support. He said that we, nor they, can covert adult accounts to child accounts. So we are either stuck having them listed as adults and not able to use Ask to Buy, or we have to create new Child IDs for them. Ideally we as Organizers could turn on Ask to Buy for ANY family member, not just kids, but I'm not seeing that as an option for those listed as adults.

You cannot make the person younger than 13. 13 is the youngest somebody could have an appleid under the old system. Under the new system you have to create the childs id from within "Family Sharing" within iCloud. If the person already exists with a fake dob, ie an adults, then the best you can do is make them 13. I noticed that a new child id under family sharing must use an @icloud email address. You can't change it.

I'm glad I found this thread. My daughter is 12 and it wouldn't let me enter her real birthday so I just set it to 13 and it accepted it. Now icloud sees her as a child account and Ask to buy is enabled.

Thanks guys!

I'm surprised that Apple don't allow us to control young adults purchases given that they don't usually have a credit card. We should also have the ability to change their account to a child one if they accept it.