Your Child’s Apple Account
With the Apple Account you create for your child, they will be able to take advantage of Apple features and services that use Apple Account. For example, your child will be able to:
- Make and receive FaceTime video and voice calls.
- Create and share content such as photos, videos, audio messages, and texts using Camera, Photos, Messages, Mail, Schoolwork, and other Apple apps.
- Create and share documents and data with other people through iCloud public and private sharing. Depending on the selected settings, this may include your child’s name and contact information, if provided.
- Share their precise location with family members and friends using Find My, Messages, and other apps that use Location Services, and use Find My to locate supported devices and accessories. If you share your child’s precise location with your family when you create your child’s Apple Account or set up your child’s Apple Watch using Apple Watch for Your Kids, your child’s precise location will be shared with all family members, including any new members added later. Your child can change their location sharing settings unless this is restricted in Screen Time or Family Sharing.
- Access shared calendars, which allow you and your child to share past and future scheduled events with other members of your family.
- Access, stream, and download content and subscriptions that other family members have purchased, including music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, apps and in-app purchases, books, Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple News+, and Apple TV+.
- Make purchases and download free content in Apple Music, the App Store, Apple Books, and the Apple TV app; make in-app purchases; and subscribe to Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple TV+, and Apple Music, all subject to the Ask to Buy settings you set.
- Receive recommendations in Apple Music and the Apple TV app.
- Play games and interact with other users using Game Center and share information with others, including your child’s Game Center nickname, avatar, and friends.
- Make and receive payments using Apple Pay services like Transit and Apple Cash if you set up their accounts, and keep and use passes like tickets and boarding passes in the Wallet app.
- Track and share health information, such as heart rate, blood pressure, or nutrition, and fitness and activity data. If they use an Apple Watch, they can choose to share their workout and activity data with other Apple Watch users through Activity Sharing, including details such as steps and distance covered in a day. If they use the Health app, they can also start to share certain health information with other Health app users in their Contacts through Health Sharing, including a subset of their historical health data and future updates relating to the data your child shares. Your child can still maintain a sharing relationship with another Health app user after that user has been deleted from their Contacts.
- Store photos, videos, documents, notes, contacts, calendars, mail, backups, and other app data, including Apple Arcade game play activity, in iCloud.
Controls for Parents
Family Sharing enables you to seamlessly share the content you choose with your family. However, there may be times when you want to limit your child’s access to certain types of content or resources available to the rest of the family. To help you manage your child’s access to Apple Account services and features, we offer a few different sets of controls for parents. These include Screen Time, Restrictions, and Family Sharing’s Ask to Buy feature. Controls for spending and receipt of funds using Apple Pay services like Apple Cash are available in Wallet.
Screen Time
If you or your child are using iOS 12 or later, iPadOS, or macOS, you can use the Screen Time feature to set limits on your child’s use across any iOS, iPadOS, or macOS devices where they are signed in. For example, you can set daily time limits for app categories via App Limits, and set specific hours where screen time is not allowed via Downtime; limit access to certain features, apps, or categories of apps; set limits on making purchases or downloading content, and set age-based content restrictions for movies, music, books, and other content. On visionOS, certain Screen Time restrictions such as App Limits and Downtime may not be available, and will not carry over to the child account that is signed in to an Apple Vision Pro even if they were used to set limits for that child account in iOS, iPadOS, or macOS. For more information, visit Use Screen Time on Apple Vision Pro.
If you are using Apple Watch for Your Kids and have enabled Schooltime, you have the ability to determine when use of certain features of the Apple Watch by your family members will be restricted. If your family member unlocks their watch during Schooltime, you can view unlocks in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone. This information is sent to Apple end-to-end encrypted, but will be tied to your Apple Account solely to allow Apple to provide information about unlocks.
Restrictions
If you or your child are using a version of iOS earlier than iOS 12, you can set restrictions for your child on any iOS or iPadOS device they use or on Apple TV by going to Settings > General > Restrictions. Using these settings, you can limit features such as FaceTime, Camera, and Safari, multiplayer gaming and certain social media apps, and also designate content appropriate for your child. This is an important step in managing your child’s activity on Apple devices. You can also set restrictions for Apple services such as Apple TV app on third-party devices and certain content on the web in Settings. These restrictions and parental controls should be set on each device your child uses.
Family Sharing and Ask to Buy
Family Sharing allows you to share purchases, subscriptions, and more with up to five other family members that you designate via their Apple Accounts. Ask to Buy is a feature of Family Sharing that allows you to review and approve downloads and purchases requested by your child, including in-app purchases and free downloads, on the App Store, the iTunes Store, or Apple Books. Ask to Buy is on by default for any users under 13 (or equivalent minimum age depending on jurisdiction) who are added to a family. If you choose to turn off Ask to Buy for your child, you will receive information about purchases, including in-app purchases, only through the App Store or otherwise using iTunes in the emailed receipt (sent 24–72 hours after purchase) or on your credit card bill.
Note that apps purchased through our Volume Purchase Plan, redownloaded, or downloaded with a redemption code may not be subject to Ask to Buy restrictions.
Creating Your Child’s Apple Account
In order to create an Apple Account for your child, we must first obtain your consent to this Family Privacy Disclosure for Children (“Disclosure”) and to Apple's Privacy Policy, which is incorporated herein by reference. If there is a conflict between Apple’s Privacy Policy and this Disclosure, the terms of this Disclosure will take precedence.
In order to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar laws in other jurisdictions, where applicable, that govern the online collection of data from children, Apple may take additional steps to help verify that the user granting permission for the creation of a child’s Apple Account is their parent or legal guardian. Accordingly, in these jurisdictions, you may be asked to verify your current iTunes, iCloud, or Apple Store payment method. Depending on the payment method, this can be done using the security code from your credit card or similar verification method. Alternatively, you may have the option to verify your age using your identity card in Wallet or verify using your Apple Account.
We ask for this information so that we can verify your identity as the Family Organizer or Parent / Guardian and then obtain your consent to the collection of personal information from your child.
We will not knowingly collect, use, or disclose any personal information from your child without your verifiable parental consent unless a COPPA exception applies. Once you have reviewed this Disclosure and Apple's Privacy Policy and provided verifiable parental consent, you will be able to create an Apple Account for your child. Your child will be able to use their Apple Account to access Apple features and services that use Apple Account, except those you have restricted in Screen Time or Restrictions. However, your child’s account cannot be removed from your Family, unless their Apple Account is deleted, they turn 13 years of age (or equivalent minimum age depending on jurisdiction), or you transfer them to another Family. Once your child reaches the age of 13 (or equivalent minimum age depending on jurisdiction), they will be permitted to maintain their account without participating in Family Sharing.
Collection of Information
As part of the process of creating an Apple Account for your child, we will ask you to provide information required to create an account that may include your child’s full name, date of birth, an email address, a password, answers to three security questions, a phone number, and a country of residence. Your child’s date of birth will be used to determine eligible services and suggest parental controls.
We may collect other information from your child that in some cases has been defined under COPPA as personal information. For example, when your child is signed in to their Apple Account, we may collect things like device identifiers, cookies, IP addresses, and the geographic locations and time zones in which their Apple device is used, including precise location to support services such as Find My. We may also collect information about your child’s activities and interactions on our websites, apps, products, and services, including content provided by third-party developers. Additional details on our collection of information are set forth in Apple's Privacy Policy.
Use of Information
As set forth in Apple's Privacy Policy, Apple may use your child’s information to communicate important notices and send information, product and service information and notifications, provide services and content, and improve our products, content, and services. For example, we may use your child’s age to provide age-appropriate information about their privacy rights and parental controls. We may also use their information for internal purposes such as auditing, data analysis, and research.
We may use, transfer, and disclose non-personal information (data that does not, on its own, permit direct association with your child’s identity) for any purpose. For example, we may aggregate and use information about customer activities on our website, iCloud services, and the iTunes Store, and from our other products and services, to help us provide more useful information to our customers and to understand which parts of our website, products, and services are of most interest. Aggregated data is considered non-personal information.
The Personalized Ads setting is off and cannot be enabled for a child’s Apple Account. Your child will not receive advertising, including advertising that is targeted to their interests from Apple’s advertising platform on devices associated with a child’s Apple Account and non-targeted (that is, contextual) advertising on those devices. In addition, the Allow Apps to Ask to Track setting will be disabled and cannot be enabled. Apps and advertisers will be restricted from accessing the Advertising Identifier provided by the operating system, and are also responsible for complying with Apple’s guidelines prohibiting them from engaging in targeted advertising or advertising measurement, or sharing information with data brokers.
Sharing of Information
Using their Apple Account and subject to your restrictions, your child may share information with others depending on the Apple features and services (such as those described above) that they use.
Family Sharing
As part of Family Sharing, your child’s information including their past and future purchases in the App Store, the iTunes Store, Apple Books, or Apple TV app may be shared with members of your Family if purchase sharing is turned on. Subject to the restrictions you set, your child may also choose to share their information with members of your Family through iCloud Photo Sharing, shared calendars and reminders, Find My, and location sharing. If you, your child, or another member of your family signs in to an Apple device such as Apple TV, the device may suggest adding other family members by displaying their Apple Account name and profile photo.
Additionally, if your child signs in to their Apple Account on a device that is owned by a third party (such as a friend’s or a school’s iPad), your child’s information, as well as the shared information of other members of your Family, may be downloaded and visible to others using that device, unless and until your child’s Apple Account is signed out of that device.
Partners
At times, Apple may partner with third parties to provide services or other offerings. For example, if you choose to enable an Apple Cash account for your child, their information will be shared with Apple’s partner bank, Green Dot Bank, to provide you the service you have requested. Personal information from your child will be shared by Apple only to provide or improve our products and services; it will not be shared with third parties for their marketing purposes.
Service Providers
Apple shares personal information with companies that provide services such as information processing, fulfilling customer orders, delivering products to you or your child, managing and enhancing customer data, providing customer service, assessing your or your child’s interest in our products and services, and conducting customer research or satisfaction surveys. These companies are obligated to protect your child’s information and may be located wherever Apple operates.
Others
It may be necessary—for example, because of the law, legal process, litigation, and requests from public and governmental authorities within or outside your country of residence—for Apple to disclose your or your child’s personal information. We may also disclose personal information about you or your child if we determine that, for purposes of national security, law enforcement, or other issues of public importance, disclosure is necessary or appropriate.
We may also disclose personal information about you or your child if we determine that disclosure is reasonably necessary to enforce our terms and conditions or to protect our operations or users. Additionally, in the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale, we may transfer any and all personal information that we have collected to the relevant third party.
Access, Correction, and Deletion
If at any time you want to access, correct, or delete data associated with Family Sharing or your child’s Apple Account, contact us at:
www.apple.com/legal/privacy/contact
Or by using the contact information below:
Apple
One Apple Park Way
Cupertino, CA 95014
+1 408 996 1010
Consent to Apple’s Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Your Child’s Information
By clicking Agree, you consent to Apple’s collection, use, and disclosure of your child’s information as set forth in Apple's Privacy Policy and this Disclosure.
Note: This consent does not apply to the data collection practices of any third parties. Third parties, including the developers of apps downloaded by any Family member and accessible by your child through Family Sharing, that may collect, use, or disclose your child’s information, are responsible for obtaining separate verifiable parental consent. We encourage you to ask your child to check with you before they grant access to any of their personal information to such third parties.
Note: Apple routinely releases software updates for our devices. When we do so, these updates will be available for download on the relevant device, including devices on which your child may use their Apple Account. We recommend that you initiate the update and review and agree to the applicable terms, such as those for iOS, macOS, and visionOS, on any such device.
If you have any questions or concerns about Apple's Privacy Policy or this Disclosure, contact us at www.apple.com/legal/privacy/contact.
