should DS10 have his own iTunes account?

[DoBug]

I am hoping for some tech help here. I just ordered DS the iPOD touch 4 with 32 G for Xmas. I have a iphone 4 and I have an iTunes account with lots of music, videos and some apps my DS likes (Angry birds, etc).

Are there advantages to letting him start his own account? We will be syncing on same computer but we have separate user accounts. We have most of his music on CD so he can load them. It is mostly TV shows and movies. I guess he would just have to re-purchase any apps or movies he really wants. If some movies came as digital downloads - can we copy them onto more than one device?

I also have an iCloud account to store my music but isn't that tied to iTunes so can't share that either?

same with netflix streaming - but I think I can put that on his phone and share that account?

Thanks for any help - so confused

 

[jel0511]

I don't believe you can sync two different iTunes accounts with the same computer. So you'll have to use separate computers for that. The cool thing is that with all the new Apples devices is that you really don't need a computer anymore, except in your case when you want to load CD's on a device. We have 8 different i-Devices and all are on the same iTunes account, different iCloud ID's for back-ups and iMessage. All you have to do is tell your child they aren't allowed to buy anything without your knowledge and change your password and security question (DD once figured that out and kept resetting the password and buying stuff) to something only you know. This way, they have to ask you for the password before buying anything on their device. Also, it helps your child not having to repurchase other things you already own. Digital downloads from Apple, even free ones are tied to your Apple ID and would have to be repurchased if you give your child another ID. Also, I believe that even if you only give gift cards for them to make their purchases, Apple still requires a CC to be placed on the account, which IMO defeats the whole purpose......

 

[3boymthr]

You could do that but it's not necessary. I have 6 (or is it 7) devices linked to the same iTunes account. You can set the device up to synch manually or to synch "only checked" items so that stuff he doesn't want doesn't show up on his device. In the long run I found it to be much cheaper that way we can share music and apps. Stuff I've/they've bought from Amazon and other places also downloads to my (Our) Itunes account and onto our apple devices. So I know what the kids are buying I've refused to give them the password. If they want to buy something (even something free) they have to go thru me. Which can sometimes be a pain, but it gives me a little parental oversight.

 

[EMAW_KSU]

We have a separate itunes account for our ten year old daughter. Her account does not have a credit card on it.

 

[SaraJayne]

We have a separate itunes account for our ten year old daughter. Her account does not have a credit card on it.

We all have separate itunes accounts. Much simpler that way and none of them have credit cards attached. Itunes gift cards only.

 

[luvmy3]

We all have seperate Itunes accounts too. We fund them with Itunes cards, nobody as a CC tied to their acct.

 

[delmar411]

We just have 1 account. There is no reason to waste money on purchasing the same things for each child.

My teen knows the password and what money she has on the account. The little kids aren't allowed to download anything without our approval and we enter the password for them.

 

[girli565]

I don't see a problem with his own account I just wouldn't have CC on it, maybe just iTunes cards?

And yes, you can sync a certain amount of devices on the same computer and have different accounts. I do this for my iphone, my DH iphone, and my mom's ipad.

 

[hollieplus2]

We have one account with individual iCloud accounts. We manually sink everything. DS doesn't know the password so anytime he wants to buy anything he has to ask us. Works fine for us.

 

[jcieutat]

10 year old with own itunes account = no go!

 

[SaraJayne]

We just have 1 account. There is no reason to waste money on purchasing the same things for each child.

My teen knows the password and what money she has on the account. The little kids aren't allowed to download anything without our approval and we enter the password for them.

Well, since my DS will be turning 16 in a few weeks and my DD is 11, there isn't a whole lot of overlap there.

Their iTunes accounts are one thing they have control over. I don't censor their music.

 

[DoBug]

Thank you all for your replies. Definitely going with gift cards for the itunes account.

Sounds like either separate or shared accounts will work. But we only have one home computer for this stuff.

So for those using one Itunes account but separate iCloud accounts, do you still sync to a computer ? Then each device has to be manually synced?. And does this mean than you're not automatically backing up to iCloud?

LOL I am really exposing my ignorance now. I think these iThings are supposed to make life easier right?

thanks again!

 

[1stvisit0909]

I am hoping for some tech help here. I just ordered DS the iPOD touch 4 with 32 G for Xmas. I have a iphone 4 and I have an iTunes account with lots of music, videos and some apps my DS likes (Angry birds, etc).

Are there advantages to letting him start his own account? We will be syncing on same computer but we have separate user accounts. We have most of his music on CD so he can load them. It is mostly TV shows and movies. I guess he would just have to re-purchase any apps or movies he really wants. If some movies came as digital downloads - can we copy them onto more than one device?

I also have an iCloud account to store my music but isn't that tied to iTunes so can't share that either?

same with netflix streaming - but I think I can put that on his phone and share that account?

Thanks for any help - so confused

You can sync more than one account with the same computer, we do. our DD11 has her own, but with no charging - that way we can load her itues gift cards and she can keep up with her stuff. we also have it password protected downloads, so for now we have to approve everything and put in the password for her.

HOW hubby deals with both on one pc, I have no idea, but I know he does. He and I share one account, for his iphone 4S and my ipad.

DD11s goes to her iphone and ipod touch.

Youngest DD is getting a ipod touch this Christmas, hubby said he'd set her up so her own itunes cards go to hers.

 

[SaraJayne]

Thank you all for your replies. Definitely going with gift cards for the itunes account.

Sounds like either separate or shared accounts will work. But we only have one home computer for this stuff.

So for those using one Itunes account but separate iCloud accounts, do you still sync to a computer ? Then each device has to be manually synced?. And does this mean than you're not automatically backing up to iCloud?

LOL I am really exposing my ignorance now. I think these iThings are supposed to make life easier right?

thanks again!

We only have one computer with iTunes on it, we just have separate logins/accounts on the computer.

 

[jmrdavis99]

An additional benefit to having him on your iTunes account is that you can use Find iPhone to find his device; it will actually show all the devices on your account as long as they are connected to the internet. Our kids are all set up on our iTunes for this reason.

 

[SC Minnie]

We have 1 account for the 3 of us. DD18 listens to a lot of our music plus some of the newer stuff. We have separate play lists for each person. We have home sharing set up so now that she is 3 hours away if she buys something it goes into the one library. I also back the library up to an external hard drive every couple of months. It only takes 1 computer crashing and having to reload ~500 CD's that will teach that lesson.

 

[SaraJayne]

An additional benefit to having him on your iTunes account is that you can use Find iPhone to find his device; it will actually show all the devices on your account as long as they are connected to the internet. Our kids are all set up on our iTunes for this reason.

That feature only works for iTouches and iPhones.

 

[DVCLiz]

When my children were smaller we shared an iTunes account. As they got older they switched to their own accounts. I wish we had separated them from the beginning - it would have been much easier in the long run.

Just set them up with iTunes cards only if you want to monitor their purchases without using your credit card.