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

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?

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

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.

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)."

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!