Do you share your apple ID with your kids?

September 13, 2017 9:20 PM

I'm curious how other parents share Apple/iPhone setups with their tweens and teenagers.

Do you share an Apple ID?
If not, did you share it at one time? When one of you got a new Apple ID was there a lot of irritation over access to saved music, etc.?
I share an Apple ID with my teenagers, but randomly find myself getting their texts and photos. I want us to have better privacy borders. I guess part one of this question is WTF is going on?
However, I am resigned to "devices, like cats, are weird."
I could just get a new ID and be done with randomly getting copies of my kids' texts to their friends without being the intended recipient, and seeing their endless selfies from their own phones in my photo galleries.
One of the main reasons I hesitate to get a new Apple ID though is that I want to be able to use "Find my iPhone" from my phone to track my teenagers' phones. And thereby track them. This is how I allow my kids more freedom out in the world than they'd otherwise get. Is this a thing, that not sharing an apple ID will make their devices vanish from my 'Find my Device' app?
Also, I don't want to give up my Apple ID and all the things in my world that it gives me access to easily.
Wonder how other people handle sharing this level of Apple life.

posted by flourpot to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Have you looked into Family Sharing?
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 9:47 PM on September 13, 2017 [12 favorites]

Family Sharing.

Conrad's link to Apple above doesn't mention Find My Phone since it's part of iCloud, but it works just fine when set up with Family Sharing. Just make sure "Share My Location" is enabled on every device.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:13 PM on September 13, 2017

Family sharing times one million.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 11:15 PM on September 13, 2017

One million and one. Within Family Sharing is the ability for you to create Apple IDs for your kids (under 13), and they link to your family. This allows devices to have access to what you want, and yet all be independent. Yes of course you can "Find my Friends" with your family members (unless they switch it off, which is a device-losing option in this household). Most importantly, they don't receive emails/imessages/whatever that was intended for you. They can, however, share in what parts of the calendar you allow them to, and they can place requests for apps to be authorised by you or your partner. And you can spread Apple Music about to be used by everyone, but make sure that their awful noise doesn't clutter up your "For You" lists :-)
posted by tillsbury at 12:30 AM on September 14, 2017

Another option is to ignore all of Apple's native options and spend six bucks per year on a more full-featured mobile device management system. This will allow you to learn (and get tech support for) one set of procedures that also works for Android and Windows Phone devices, rather than getting so accustomed to Apple's ways of doing these things that you end up with vendor lock-in by default.
posted by flabdablet at 2:29 AM on September 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

I wish there'd been family sharing when my kids were tweens. I'd have a lot fewer fart apps saved to my account.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 3:14 AM on September 14, 2017 [4 favorites]

Family Sharing.
posted by LoveHam at 4:16 AM on September 14, 2017

Yes, Family Sharing is great, but saved music may be a problem, depending on how you have acquired it. If it is all iTunes purchases, then you are good, it can be downloaded by anyone in the Family from the iTunes Store (under Purchased Music). If it is from non-Apple sources (ripped from CDs, bought from non-Apple vendors, ...other methods) then it belongs to the account it is currently on (yours). There are ways around this, but it can be a bit of a hassle, especially if you have a great deal of music. I was skeptical at first, but the $15.99/month family plan for Apple Music has really been well worth it.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:08 AM on September 14, 2017

There wasn't Family Sharing when my then-11/now-19 daughter got her first iPod so--being a Fine Upstanding Citizen Who Follows the Rules--I let her share my Apple ID. It's been a mild-to-moderate inconvenience that we've yet to get completely disentangled without anyone losing access to 8 years worth of music and apps. So I definitely recommend going the Family Sharing route sooner rather than later!
posted by drlith at 7:09 AM on September 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

If it is from non-Apple sources (ripped from CDs, bought from non-Apple vendors, ...other methods) then it belongs to the account it is currently on (yours).

This is pretty much straight-up wrong. If the music was bought/acquired through anything other than iTunes then the music has absolutely nothing to do with your AppleID at all. It doesn’t “belong” to an account. It would just need to be synced to the devices individually through iTunes in the computer, or downloaded through whatever service was used to download it originally. I’m literally not even sure how/why you thought this was the case?
posted by sixfootaxolotl at 5:35 PM on September 14, 2017

Not going to get into for work reasons, but Rock Steady is describing a very valid possibility. iTunes Match and iCloud Library can definitely associate non purchased music with a specific Store account.

However, Apple Muisc is $15/mo for a family of 5. Eveyone gets 40 million songs on their wrist, err, iPhone, everyone gets to legally listen to the “non purchased music”, and there is zero hassle in trying to copy stuff around.

One thing to keep in mind with Family Sharing: all members will use the same payment information. This helps protect against a dude in a dorm signing up 4 of his fellow dorm bros into his “family” and sharing everything.

You can set limit and require your approval for all apps and purchases, but that is something to keep in mind.
posted by sideshow at 1:45 AM on September 15, 2017