Mikey Campbell
As part of its new iPad in education initiative, Apple on Thursday revised the iTunes Store's terms and conditions to allow children under the age of 13 to open and manage their own accounts, as long as the Apple ID was requested by an "approved educational institution."
As noted by Macworld, the revision to Apple's long-standing stipulation was motivated by the company's iPad in education plans, which would have been seriously handicapped under the old rules.
The new terms read:
This iTunes Service is only available for individuals age 13 years or older, unless you are under 13 years old and your Apple ID was provided to you as a result of a request by an approved educational institution.
The conditions, which apply to the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore and Mac App Store, also note that would-be users over the age of 13, but under 18, should review the agreement with parents or guardians before activating an account. Previously, iTunes restricted pre-teens from holding personal accounts.
In order for schools to request and Apple ID for young children, the institutions must first ask for and receive parental consent.
It was announced in June that Apple had won a contract to supply every student in the Los Angeles Unified School District with an iPad, which will be sold at a per-unit price of $678. With 47 campuses, L.A. Unified is the second-largest school system in the U.S., making the total deal worth some $30 million.
Market research published in September 2012 suggested the iPad first began replacing sales of traditional PCs to schools and students in June of that year.
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5 Comments
I hope Apple can win a few more contracts like they did in L.A. and I truly hope iPads are more beneficial to students than regular books.
Nice idea. Wrong way to do it I think. I like my cousin's idea of allowing sub accounts. Allowed content ratings (including denying apps with IAP etc) set by parent who also has ability to see history etc. no posting reviews, no credit cards on account etc. allowance, gift card or items gifted only. When kid turns 18, auto converts to new account.
Interestingly this change in terms has not yet been reflected in the Australian Store where we have no direct legislation around privacy/account setup and children under any age. Wonder how long it will take to filter through.
They have also begun pushing out training to people that support Apple IDs at Apple to cover the differences in the way those accounts are handled. Half way done with my training on it. The biggest issue I see is the lack of experience in the IT departments of the school systems with handling the use of iPads.
I agree 100%. Allow the creation of Apple ID accounts that are "administered" by a "parent" (parent meaning a higher level and also meaning a parent) account to allow control of the account. The problem Apple has with that is the protocols used with Apple IDs. Apple use an Op-enDirectory, Directory Services ID for each account. Your Apple ID might be bobjones@somewebsite.com but internally it is actually just a number. So they would have to completely revamp the system to allow end user control of designates and admins.
But I still think that they should makes those changes. It would help parents do a lot of things that I see all the time go wrong. Including App purchases that are not appropriate and kids breaking the bank with in-app purchases. I have seen cases where there were $100's of those purchases in a month on obviously marketed to kids games. One case the parent was very controlling of the apps the child downloaded. The game was without a doubt for kids but it had in-app purchase that topped out at $99.99. So the parent finds charges totaling $1099.89 on their card after 3 days. Apple was kinds enough to refund those but the parent had to call in to get them reversed.
Apple does a great job of providing the ability to restrict those types of purchases but it is on a per device basis and parents have to be aware enough to set them.
So creating sub-accounts that are limited would be a great way to help everyone.