All iPads Setting up IPads for Kids

[slam readable]

My partners son is getting a new IPad for christmas (lucky him) and having never set up an IPad for anyone else but me, we are wondering how to do it for him. What is the absolute best and easiest way to do this?

Would want his IPad somehow linked to his moms Apple ID so that they can share purchases but also give him freedom to choose his own apps in the future. Does he effectivley need his own Apple ID? As he is too young to have credit details, can't see how there will be in-app purchasing issues.

Realise this is not a new issue/topic so any help or guidance would be appreciated.

 

[Night Spring]

Create a new Apple ID for him. This is just for iCloud sync and backup, FaceTime and iMessage. No credit card needed.

For apps and music / video purchases, there are two ways to go about this. You can just use his mom's iTunes account, or you can make an iTunes account with his Apple ID, and instead of associating it with a credit card, you can just add gift cards.

The advantage of using his mom's account is they can just share all apps and other purchases. But you'll probably not want to share the password with the kid, meaning his mom will have to make all purchases for him.

The advantage of giving him his own account is you can keep all purchases separate, and when he grows up and moves out, he can just add a credit card once he's old enough to have one. Giving him an "allowance" with gift cards and letting him manage his own purchases is, IMO, a great way to teach fiscal responsibility to kids.

Let me know which way sounds more suitable for your situation, and I'll give you more details on how to set it up.

 

[slam readable]

I think the option of giving him a unique Apple ID and ITunes account and pumping it with gift card vouchers is certainly a good idea in the "teach fiscal responsibility" and giving him independence approach.

I know you can gift apps to people so that will also be happening.

He is though only 14 and so there will need to be content restrictions. If we were to create Apple ID and ITunes account can we limit his access to say explicit material?

 

[Night Spring]

I know on the iPad, you can set up content restrictions. Not sure how it would work on iTunes on a computer, however. Hopefully someone can chime in with that info.

Is past my bedtime now, so if nobody has posted by the time I wake up, I'll dig up the instructions on how to create an iTunes account without credit card and post it then.

 

[mantan]

I think the option of giving him a unique Apple ID and ITunes account and pumping it with gift card vouchers is certainly a good idea in the "teach fiscal responsibility" and giving him independence approach.

I know you can gift apps to people so that will also be happening.

He is though only 14 and so there will need to be content restrictions. If we were to create Apple ID and ITunes account can we limit his access to say explicit material?

Keeping the same Apple ID as mom would allow him to use the same apps/music purchases she already has without having to buy things twice.

He can still use gift cards for purchases. With my kids, buy/use their own gift cards to buy things through my Apple ID. I eventually gave my older kid (16) the password. I still enter the password for my 12 year old. They can exercise some fiscal responsibility...but we we aren't wasting money when the whole family wants the same app/song.

You can limit explicit content in iTunes. You can also use apps that filter age appropriate content, like replacing Safari with something like Mobicip. At 14, I'm sure he won't like it - but it limits the web to age appropriate material.

 

[Night Spring]

Here' s an article explaining how to set up an iTunes account without a credit card.
http://ipod.about.com/od/introtoitunesmusicstore/f/itunes_no_cc.htm

It's possible that if you create a new iCloud account while setting up an iPad, you'll have an option of setting it up as your iTunes account as well, and pick "none" as the payment option. But I can't find any articles confirming this.

In any case, good luck with the iPad for the 14 year old. That's not far from becoming an adult. If I recall my teenage years correctly, it always felt good when people treated me as a young adult, made me feel like I'm not just a kid anymore.

 

[slam readable]

Thanks guys for your advice. We've been discussing it and whilst everyones situation is different (ours being he has Aspergers Syndrome), the option of the boy having his own Apple ID/Itunes account and where he gets gift cards (or gifted apps) as rewards or through earning them is the right approach for us.

He is a good kid and can be trusted not to go wandering off on websites and such he shouldn't be (and if he is then he's doing a hell of a good job hiding it).

Like most kids today, buying music seems to be irrelevant now that everyone is on YouTube and the apps he enjoys playing my IPad are the free ones; even those which aren't, its not a big deal for him to get them for his own device either as a gift from us or as a choice he makes from gift cards. We certainly want to engourage learning so there are already a number of apps we are going to gift for him.

Hope this helps others out there.