How To: Converting Adult accounts to Child accounts for Family Sharing

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Level 4

1,480 points

How To: Converting Adult accounts to Child accounts for Family Sharing

According to this tweet on twitter (and retweeted by an Apple employee) you can convert an adult Apple ID in to a child Apple ID by resetting the Date of Birth to 1/1/2001.

Here is the tweet:

“PSA: If your kids have “adult” accounts, you can turn them into “child” accounts for Family Sharing by resetting their DoB to 1/1/2001.”

This should allow you to add your children, who already have regular Apple ID accounts, to your Family Sharing account with the restrictions and benefits of a child account.

I don't know what the full procedure is beyond that. I guess that once you make the DoB change you can add the account to a Family Sharing account and it will be seen as a Child account with all restrictions in place. Once that is complete you should be able to change it again to the child’s real DoB so that the child account restrictions expire at the proper time.

I'm hoping Apple will post a proper guide for this procedure.

To make the change you need to log-in to the My Apple ID web site and make the change there. The Data of Birth settings are found under Password and Security. You will need to answer the security question(s) first before you can make the changes.

Be aware I haven’t tried this yet so YMMV. (I do have to perform this change for my niece and her family but don't know when that will be.)

If you try this please post your experience with it for the benefit of others.

UPDATE: Apparently if you change the the DoB again, to the child’s real DoB, the account will refer back to an adult account. So, if you want to relax the restrictions on the account you need to do them manually by changing the DoB manually at the appropriate time for that child.

Message was edited by: Gino Cerullo

Posted on Sep 19, 2014 8:33 AM

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Answer 1

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pfisher112

Level 1

42 points

Mar 20, 2017 10:21 AM in response to Gino Cerullo

Since this post is old, several users have commented on this post regarding changing the birthday to reflect a change from adult to child. Some users have said to change some aspect of the birthday or year. Can anyone confirm this trick still works? Has Apple released anything new on this topic?

I have Family Sharing on and I have 3 kids under the age of 14. All three kids are listed as "adult" and I would like to change it to child. They already have Apple IDs and I don't want to delete anything, I just want to change the setting from adult to child.

What is the easiest way to change the setting?

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Answer 2

bala0509

Level 1

8 points

Sep 19, 2014 9:21 AM in response to Gino Cerullo

i can confirm that 1/1/2001 worked.

However, I have other issues as my child account now has to wait for 364 days- been locked out

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Answer 3

Sep 20, 2014 9:54 AM in response to Gino Cerullo

I am trying to set up a family account for my younger brother and sister who are 10. This family sharing thing was awesome for me because I was always the designated person in my house to set up and deal with all things Apple.

I did manage to get their DOB changed to 1/1/2001, but thats really not their real birthday. It will absolutely not let me change it to their real birthday. Im not sure what action to take now.

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Answer 4

UhUhLeUh

Level 1

20 points

Oct 26, 2014 6:13 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

Thanks Gino, I just left the note below at https://www.apple.com/feedback/icloud.html . I tried to avoid sarcasm, but it was hard. Apple need to focus a lot more on family experience, not just single.

"In the past Apple pushed us, parents, to lie that their kids were older than 13, so they could have their own accounts without messing up ours. It took ages for Apple to react to that obvious necessity: kids need to have their own accounts, with parental controls enabled.

Now Apple motivates us to lie that they are exactly 13, because converting their "adult" accounts into child ones is not allowed, and creating new child accounts for them is out of question (unless you allow to transfer purchased songs and apps from their old accounts to the new ones)."

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Answer 5

jmvdkolk

Level 1

35 points

Oct 22, 2014 7:58 AM in response to Gino Cerullo

This thread is about finding proper solutions and about making Apple aware that people need the proper solution. The Family Sharing option is great, but it only works for those who do not have Apple IDs for their children yet. Creating a new Apple ID is not an option. Allowing a child access to Family Sharing without a way to make sure they cannot buy content using the parent credit card, without consent, is not an option either.

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Answer 6

DMR19

Level 1

9 points

Jun 21, 2015 7:57 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

Apparently, Apple has fixed this.

I went to the My Apple ID website that the OP listed, intending to change my daughter's birthday to the fake one he mentioned. Just to try, I entered her actual birthday (2005). It said that the change needed to be approved, and sent an email to the Family Sharing administrator (me). I went to my email, clicked to approve the change, and it changed her to a child status instead of an adult.

Hope this helps.

DMR19

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Answer 7

Gino Cerullo Author

Level 4

1,480 points

Sep 20, 2014 10:39 AM in response to amandafromla coste

Hi amandafromla coste,

You are correct, you cannot change an existing Apple ID’s DoB to anything other than 1/1/2001 if the DoB indicates an age under 13 years old. Understand that this is a workaround for converting existing Apple IDs the were created prior to the introduction of Family Sharing to restricted Child accounts.

I wouldn’t worry about the date being their real DoB. When you want to remove the restrictions of a Child account (when they are old enough) you can always go back and change it to their real DoB.

It appears that proper child accounts, with real DoBs, can only be created by the “family organizer” using the settings found in iCloud on an iOS device or a Mac running Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite when that OS becomes available.

More information about Family Sharing can be found here: http://www.apple.com/support/icloud/family-sharing/

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Answer 8

Gino Cerullo Author

Level 4

1,480 points

Oct 22, 2014 8:08 AM in response to jmvdkolk

No, actually this thread, which was started by me, was to inform people how to convert a regular Apple ID into one that had the restrictions of a kid’s Apple ID. The work-around is not great and I wish Apple would provide an official, and better, solution but it is what I have found that works so far.

If you want to let Apple know that their lack of solution is insufficient use Apple’s Feedback form. That is something they will read

https://www.apple.com/feedback/icloud.html

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Answer 9

jugman

Level 1

10 points

Jul 18, 2015 9:12 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

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

This Link will take you to the "Manage my Apple ID" site. From there you can make the desired change to the child account you want to update. I was able to update the birth date of my child - it worked like a charm - and reflected accurately in iCloud Family Share of which I am the administrator.

Hope it helps.

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Answer 10

slacka24

Level 1

0 points

Sep 21, 2014 4:57 AM in response to Gino Cerullo

Changing to 1/1/2001 worked for me too, but again, I could not use my daughter's true DOB which is in 2006, so hopefully, this will be fixed so she doesn't convert to an adult prematurely.

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Answer 11

Gino Cerullo Author

Level 4

1,480 points

Sep 19, 2014 9:32 AM in response to bala0509

I’ve been reading about that issue. Did it happen because of the DoB change or did you remove the account and try to add it back in.

Apple has a policy that accounts can only be moved once per year. I think it is to prevent piracy of iTunes apps and media that can be shared in Family accounts. If they didn't put a restriction in place then moving from Family account to Family account can be abused to allow people to accumulate apps and media that they didn't pay for. 364 days is probably too long a restriction though.

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Answer 12

Gino Cerullo Author

Level 4

1,480 points

Oct 20, 2014 1:21 PM in response to zudy977

zudy977, if the Apple IDs you have set up for your kids were set up prior to the introduction of Family Sharing then the only way to enable “purchase restrictions” is to change the date of birth associated with their accounts.

Only new accounts that are set up for kids after the introduction of Family Sharing automatically will have “purchases restrictions” activated.

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Answer 13

jmvdkolk

Level 1

35 points

Oct 22, 2014 1:06 AM in response to Gino Cerullo

The only problem I see with the "fake" DoB is that your child might change the DoB to something over 18. That will allow them to buy using the parent creditcard without requiring permission. Not sure how often Apple will allow one to change the DoB.

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Answer 14

jmvdkolk

Level 1

35 points

Oct 22, 2014 12:10 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

Thank you Gino. I will put in a request.

As workaround I would like to add another option. One can always gift an app. That is what I have done so far with my children. They pay me back out of their allowance.

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Answer 15

Jun 25, 2015 3:20 AM in response to DMR19

Woohoo - Just followed the details from DMR19 and worked a treat. Official and all above board with genuine DOBs for both kids now sorted. Handy as the eldest is just about to get his first iPhone... Looking forward to having some proper Family Sharing control there!

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