Convert existing Apple ID to Child Apple ID

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.

I am upset for Apple not providing an upgrade path for existing users. The family option is great, and just what people needed. But it is only for new users. There are no good options for people that already have Apple IDs. Abandoning the old ones is the worst possible option. Not using the family option is a way better option.

As far as I can tell, you can only change the age once per whatever time period, and only to an age older than 13. I haven't seen the issue where you can only change the year, but you can not change the age to younger than 13. To be honest, I couldn't even get my birthday to change in testing, I tried to change my age from 36 to 35 and received the same error message. The error message isn't explanatory even though it says "right now". I'm guessing the feature is frozen out until they can resolve it internally. You cannot change a child account to older than 13 yet. It's a preventative measure to keep child accounts from falsifying information to get around parental blocks.

Honestly, this is a new feature and obviously needs to have the kinks worked out. I'd recommend you continue with how you worked the store before, or create new child accounts if that is reasonable.

reu214 wrote:

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.

That's always been available, really, just not remotely. My child doesn't know my Apple ID password. When he wants to download something, he brings me his device, and I enter the password.

I've also enabled Restrictions on the device as well.

If you don't want someone having access to your Apple ID to make purchases, don't give them the password. That works whether they are 8 or 80.

Granted, I'd like to see the Family Sharing Organizer have that control as well, but that's beside the point. Submit the feature request, and until then, work within the system as designed.

As a parent I make sure my kids NEVER enter the real date of birth or real email address on line. I do the same apple really doesn't need to know our personal detail just so we can send photo to each other and share music, call it what you like, but focus on a solution to problem regardless of the cause rather than ranting nonsense.

So getting more to the point.

So I'm still looking for the best setup, The family share account so far seems more troublesome than just creating separate IDs for every one then just typing in dads account when we want to install something.

Maybe I am wrong but I cant find a way to solve these downsides.

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.

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

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.

My question is ?

Is it really worth it. I cant see any bit advantage other than not having to enter your credit card details each time in the family share setup over all the problems it causes.

Csound1 wrote:

Actually you asked me a question and did not like my answer, there has been no discussion.

Have a nice day.

Here's what I did:

A few years ago, I signed up for an Apple ID for my child, and didn't let him use it because he was not old enough. I wanted to reserve the Apple ID before someone else took it. At no point did I lie about his age or who the account was for, or break any terms and conditions. Now Apple allows Apple IDs to be used by children under 13 and I wish to do so, but there is no mechanism for assigning the proper birthdate.

Instead of accusing people of lying about their children's age, just provide the answer. This isn't the place for judging other people's honesty.

Bottom line, the only way to solve it is by now lying about your children's age, even (as in my case) you did not lie before. The real answer is that Apple did not foresee this use case and have no "honest" solution for it.

hayesk wrote:

A few years ago, I signed up for an Apple ID for my child, and didn't let him use it because he was not old enough. I wanted to reserve the Apple ID before someone else took it. At no point did I lie about his age or who the account was for, or break any terms

Ooops, it turns out you did have to enter an age. Regardless, I don't see this as a bad example since I was only reserving the account for use when my child becomes old enough. Regardless, my point was more about the judging instead of just providing the answer.

Child Online Protection Act *****. This is a nightmare. It's the same with every company. You must create an account for your child but when you try, you can't because you can't prove you aren't the child.

Setting the age to 13 for my of my children who already have AppleID's is the only thing that worked.

"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."

That's not correct. To use "ask to buy" the family member must be under 18. My son has an account that lists him as 14 and he has ask to buy. My daughter however has an account that lists her as over 18 (created by a "helpful" apple employee when her grandmother bought her the phone) and I cannot turn on ask to buy for her.

I think "ask to buy" for under 18 only is apple's way of discouraging you from using family share with friends and others you don't completely trust. It's possibly tied to their content licensing agreements (pure conjecture). I can't think of a technical reason it's that way.

Good to know. This wan't the case back when I tested it. So it's nice that there is some improvement.

I'd still encourage everyone to contact Apple Feedback to request that the feature be expanded to all Family share members.

Thanks for the helpful followup.

All very interesting and I may have missed this, but when creating an apple id for an under 13 to activate family sharing, does the id have to be @icloud.com? I would prefer to use her existing email.

thanks

As far as I know it has to be an @iCloud.com account. I started back in the @mac.com days which means I now have @mac @me and @iCloud as aliases to the same account. You may be able to add an alias in earlier domains after the account is created, but I haven't tested this and it's unlikely.

I'm not sure if the original poster (OP) is still having this issue. I found a solution that works for me. I have no desire to engage in an ethical debate.

I came here because I have two children and I had originally set up their accounts before child accounts were available. One has an icloud email and one has gmail. I manage both. Each child has a separate Apple ID for iCloud, but they share use one Apple ID (the oldest's since it was set up first) for App Store and iTunes purchases. My wife and I have a similar setup where we have separate Apple IDs for iCloud (Messaging, FaceTime, etc.), but share my Apple ID for purchases. This setup has worked well in conjunction with Home Sharing.

Now that Family Sharing is possible, I finally set it up today. I found out that I cannot change my children's birthdates to their actual birthdates because the system will not allow an age under 13. This is because their accounts were not originally set up as child accounts. I tried to change the month, day, and year so they would be 13, but received the red message other posters have referenced that the birthdate could not be changed at this time.

What worked was to change the birthdate to 1/1/2012 and click save. I could then change the month and day to match my children's actual birthdays, though the year must be adjusted so the age is 13. This is not ideal, but it is sufficient to use Ask to Buy. My plan will be to adjust the year so the age is 13 each year until each of them actually are 13.

Again, this isn't an ideal solution, but I can live with it. I'm sure others can, too.

Hi ShimonELTigre,

Thanks for actually answering the question. Unfortunately tho, I'm still not having any luck. Tried what you suggested but it won't let me change to 1/1/2012.

Could there be different rules for different countries? Looks like there is no solution other than creating a completely new email and Child Apple ID for my daughter.

Thanks

Not sure why it would be different depending on country. Try 1/1/2011. You have to log in to your daughter's Apple ID account and click the security and privacy section on the left side. I don't have it open right now, but I think it is the second one down. Go through the security questions. At the bottom of the page is the birthdate. Again, try 1/1/2011 and click save. If it doesn't work, write back what it says.

It says "you cannot change your birthday at this time" when I try to change it on the web on my iMac. And when I try from a device, it says "Cannot Change Birthday. You cannot change your birthday to this age. Permission from a parent is required to create an Apple ID for a young child".