[Technology] Apple Watches and family share

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Eldest now has the desire to want to start going to the park on his own and this worries me, maybe more than it should.

To counter this, have considered have getting him a smart watch (call us in an emergency / tracking etc) and have been looking at the Apple SE 2nd edition (cellular)and the functionality of “family share”

Has anyone got any experience of apple watches and family share (not my paranoia) that they can share?

Seems to be straight forward but are there any pitfalls? The obvious being giving an 8 year old something of moderate value etc

Thanks

 

[indy3050]

Family of 5 use Apple sharing which is pretty good! All of us have access to Apple Music, if one of us buys an app the others can have it for free and the tracking works perfectly well both on iPhones and Apple Watches! I couldn’t say anything negative at all.

 

[Bozza]

Does he have an iPhone already? If so, the stock "Find My" app on all iPhones will do the tracking you want.

We all have iPhones and that's what we use if we need to find out where the others are.

If he doesn't have an iPhone, what you are proposing should work (see: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211768) but I think a phone would prove to be a more useful purchase. There are now very powerful parental controls built-in to iOS enabling you to allow/disallow/time limit all manner of activity, as well as get reports on what your child has been doing on their phone.

I'd probably look at a used iPhone that's a few generations old - my son has an iPhone 11.

 

[Live by the sea]

Eldest now has the desire to want to start going to the park on his own and this worries me, maybe more than it should.

To counter this, have considered have getting him a smart watch (call us in an emergency / tracking etc) and have been looking at the Apple SE 2nd edition (cellular)and the functionality of “family share”

Has anyone got any experience of apple watches and family share (not my paranoia) that they can share?

Seems to be straight forward but are there any pitfalls? The obvious being giving an 8 year old something of moderate value etc

Thanks

The Apple se watch is great and really easy to use and you can get it on a shared plan .

Letting an 8 year old go to a park by themselves is however a very bad idea for obvious reasons .

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Family of 5 use Apple sharing which is pretty good! All of us have access to Apple Music, if one of us buys an app the others can have it for free and the tracking works perfectly well both on iPhones and Apple Watches! I couldn’t say anything negative at all.

Good to hear thanks

Does he have an iPhone already? If so, the stock "Find My" app on all iPhones will do the tracking you want.

We all have iPhones and that's what we use if we need to find out where the others are.

If he doesn't have an iPhone, what you are proposing should work (see: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211768) but I think a phone would prove to be a more useful purchase. There are now very powerful parental controls built-in to iOS enabling you to allow/disallow/time limit all manner of activity, as well as get reports on what your child has been doing on their phone.

I'd probably look at a used iPhone that's a few generations old - my son has an iPhone 11.

He doesn’t have an iPhone yet, I could give him my old XR with a PAYG sim but he’s still at the age of running about, it falling from pockets, losing it etc so considered a watch for now until he’s a bit older. Also I suspect he will be less glued to the watch than a phone!

The Apple se watch is great and really easy to use and you can get it on a shared plan .

Letting an 8 year old go to a park by themselves is however a very bad idea for obvious reasons .

Thanks

He’s closer to 9 and the park itself is 100 yards from where we live and fully visible from our house, he would never be there alone and always with at least 1 friend / cousin etc . We also live on a remote development and there is a genuine sense of community here with people familiar with each other’s families etc, appreciate it doesn’t mitigate the risks fully

It’s a tough one as his group of n friends have started going together (with some family oversight nearby like us) but it’s a balancing act, hence the watch and tracking etc