Apple's Family Sharing: A Comprehensive Guide to Sharing and Parental Controls

Family Sharing offers a convenient way to share Apple purchases, subscriptions, iCloud storage, and more within a family unit. It also provides valuable parental control features, such as location tracking and purchase approval. This guide details how to set up and utilize these features effectively.

Understanding Family Sharing

Family Sharing is ideal for households with multiple Apple devices, allowing shared access to Apple services while maintaining individual Apple IDs. You can add up to five family members, with the group organizer initially managing shared purchases and files. Individual members retain the ability to hide their purchases from others.

Beyond purchases, Family Sharing includes location sharing for all members' devices (even offline), a shared calendar, and a shared photo library. Note that you can join a maximum of two Family Sharing groups annually, but only participate in one at a time.

Managing Children's Purchases

The organizer can control purchases made by family members under 18 using the "Ask to Buy" feature. This sends a notification for every App Store purchase, movie, TV show, or book, requiring approval.

To enable this, go to Settings > Family, select the child's profile, tap "Ask to Buy," and enable "Require Purchase Approval." This is automatically enabled for users under 13. Importantly, once disabled for a user who turns 18, it cannot be re-enabled.

The organizer can delegate approval authority to another adult family member (over 18) via Settings > Family > [Member] > Parent/Guardian > Set as Parent/Guardian. Only one adult's approval is needed.

Approving or Denying Purchase Requests

When a child makes a purchase request (even free items), a notification appears on the organizer's devices. This notification details the request and its cost. If missed, the request can be found in the Messages app.

Tap "Review the Request" in the message to access the purchase details and select "Approve" or "Deny." Approval initiates the purchase and download. Denial sends a notification to the child. Requests can be managed from iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches. For nearby children, in-person approval is also an option. Previously purchased items or redeemed codes do not require approval. Apple Account for Students users can still use Ask to Buy for personal purchases (excluding school-provided content).

Monitoring Children's Purchases

Regularly monitoring your child's purchases is advisable to prevent accidental downloads of inappropriate content. Remember that shared purchases do not require approval. Disable purchase sharing in Family Sharing settings if this is a concern.

Disable Ask to Buy for 18-year-olds (or when no longer needed) via Settings > Family > [Member] > Ask to Buy. This action is irreversible for adult accounts.

Digital Purchase Monitoring with Ask to Buy

Ask to Buy provides a simple and effective method for controlling children's app and media downloads. The automated approval process streamlines the management of digital content access.

For parents seeking a balance between providing children with their own devices and maintaining control over content access, Ask to Buy is a valuable tool. For more comprehensive parental controls, explore Apple's additional parental control settings.

• Apple iPhone
• Mac
• App Store

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