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Stop adults from purchasing using family sharing

I am the main account holder, and therefore it uses my Credit Card. I wish to prevent other Adults in my Family Group From making purchases without my knowledge or authorisation. I believe you can ask children to request authorisation but any adult can just buy without restriction. If this is not possible then Apple needs to seriously fix this and allow adults to purchase with their own cards and restrict minors only.

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Jan 1, 2015 9:03 AM

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Posted on Dec 14, 2015 1:22 PM

Any solution on this? This is becoming more and more of a problem. We have two sets of parents plus my kids all living in our home and having fun with iPhones, iPads, and Apple TV, and I need for everyone to be able to share purchases, but we can't have adult family members be allowed to indiscriminately make purchases off of my card unless I can approve them just like children making purchases. I can't believe there isn't a fix for this. Either force everyone to use the approval request system like the kids or restrict purchase power to specific adults, and force other adults to either enter their own payment method or force them to add a gift card for their own purchases. There has got to be a fix.

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Dec 14, 2015 1:22 PM in response to .zaba

Any solution on this? This is becoming more and more of a problem. We have two sets of parents plus my kids all living in our home and having fun with iPhones, iPads, and Apple TV, and I need for everyone to be able to share purchases, but we can't have adult family members be allowed to indiscriminately make purchases off of my card unless I can approve them just like children making purchases. I can't believe there isn't a fix for this. Either force everyone to use the approval request system like the kids or restrict purchase power to specific adults, and force other adults to either enter their own payment method or force them to add a gift card for their own purchases. There has got to be a fix.

Jul 29, 2016 9:05 PM in response to .zaba

This is absurd, why would there be no option to block adults... I am bamboozled by the thought process. I like to have the family share but it also allows all family to buy on my dime? This needs to be fixed NOW! Please if anyone important at apple reads this stuff you need to add the option to block adults, you aren't that dumb..

Jun 10, 2017 6:59 PM in response to .zaba

The amount of money that is made by these unauthorized adults is probably in the millions if not more. This is why Apple will not restrict this. If you are listed as an adult you can purchase anything on the primary's card which is BS. Apple can restrict this or at least prompt the primary for approval. It's a simple to do but they would lose millions on people not wanting to deal with trying to get this credited back. Because of this I am done with Apple Music and this BS family share.

Mar 27, 2017 2:19 PM in response to .zaba

i do see why apple wants this privilege to apply only to real families and their litmus test of what is a family is are you willing to pay for their purchases. we SHOULD however be able to make all family members request approval before purchasing on organizer's card however. I put my special-needs niece on my apple music family plan and she immediately racked up $140 in "gold bar" purchases in candy crush in 24 hours on my credit card. I was told that i cannot add the restriction to get purchases approved in advance to her account because she is officially an adult even though she is special needs. and no adults need to get permission for purchases. sigh.

Jun 10, 2017 7:11 PM in response to 3clo1979

The amount of money that is made by these unauthorized adults is probably in the millions if not more.


Your logic is flawed. Do you honestly believe that a business plan includes the logic... "we will make millions from adult family members who will buy apps that other adults will keep paying for, even after they get asked not to..."


If this was simply about money, there would no family sharing. Period. Everyone pays for every app.


If an adult that "you" invite to your family, abuses your payment method, remove them from the family. That should be no more than 2 conversations.


One can't always expect technology to solve what is essentially a domestic dispute or issue of trust and responsibility within a group of 6 people.

Jan 2, 2015 11:56 AM in response to .zaba

Hi zaba,


Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!


Other adults in your Family Sharing group can use iTunes Store gift cards if they do not wish to have the payment default to the organizer. The individual adult can add a gift card credit to their individual account that will be charged first, before defaulting to the organizer’s payment method.


Family purchases and payments - Apple Support


Making purchases

After you set up your family, any time a family member initiates a new purchase it will be billed directly to your account unless that family member has gift or store credit. First, their store credit will be used to pay the partial or total bill. The remainder will bill to the family organizer's card. As the family organizer, any receipts generated by the transaction will be sent to you. Learn more about how iTunes Store purchases are billed.



Best regards,

Joe

Jan 5, 2015 12:19 AM in response to AppleJoe

Thanks for your answer, although this is a solution it still doesn't give me control over the account, as a card holder I expect full control over purchases, in a similar way to asking for authorisation when children make a purchase I should be able to make the same request for adults. Its disconcerting to receive receipts for purchases you have no prior knowledge of. I don't follow Apple's logic in implementing it this way, Individual members of a family group should have the option to use their own payment method or use that of the family owners if appropriate. This needs a re-think Apple, although I welcome the initiative of Family groups, there is still a way to go in implementation I think.

Stop adults from purchasing using family sharing

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