iOS appstore accounts for children and parental controls

March 19, 2016 6:49 PM

Hello fellow parents, I'm looking for advice on how to best set up an iOS device for a child.

Currently I share my own account with another device for the child (iPad) and I don't have parental controls on. Child's apps are downloaded to my device alongside the iPad, which is not ideal (except I know what apps the child is trying.)

I'd like to get to a point where I can set parental controls by age for an account for the child. I'd love to get a message when apps are downloaded just so I know but don't have to check. Is there a best practices website for this? Thanks in advance.

posted by gen to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Why not turn on the family account setting?
posted by k8t at 7:31 PM on March 19, 2016

Response by poster: Family account for my account or make a separate account as a family account?
posted by gen at 8:40 PM on March 19, 2016

http://www.apple.com/icloud/family-sharing/
posted by k8t at 9:13 PM on March 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you have trouble setting it up, you can call Apple tech support and they will usually do a good job of walking you through the process. If you set it up properly, you will get a message on your device asking whether you approve downloading of something your child wants to download on his/her device.
posted by OCDan at 11:04 PM on March 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Create family account with your Apple ID as the primary/adult Apple ID. Create Apple ID for the child's iPad. Add child's Apple ID to family account.

You can set the family account to require adult approval for Apple Store purchases made by the child account.

You can also at anytime go into the App Store and see purchases made by any Apple ID in the family account.
posted by LoveHam at 7:40 AM on March 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all! I appreciate the guidance.
posted by gen at 4:13 PM on March 20, 2016