Convert existing Apple ID to Child Apple ID

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.

thanks

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

Phemale12 - you rock!

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".

I have no idea why it isn't working. I used the Apple ID website and clicked Manage Apple ID and then logged in. Followed the steps I listed above and it worked.

There is no way to "Convert an existing account into a child account".

You can NOT, and could not have chosen a birthdate of less than 13 years old when creating an Apple ID before family sharing. You can NOT use the "Ask to Buy feature" or create a new child account without creating said child account through the Family sharing settings.

You can add pretty much any Apple ID to family sharing, but it is not the same as a child account. I'm sure this is for legal reasons, and not just an oversight.

The answer is no, either deal with it or work around it. Please submit a feature request to apple.com/feedback requesting the specific features to work on ALL family accounts. If there is a mod out there, please close this thread.