Apple Revises iTunes Terms and Conditions to Allow Educational iTunes Accounts for Children Under 13

Apple on Thursday altered its iTunes Terms and Conditions to permit children under the age of 13 to operate individual iTunes accounts created at the request of an "approved educational institution," reports Macworld.

Previously, Apple restricted iTunes accounts to children aged 13 or older, but the company announced it would be changing its policy with the release of iOS 7.

These App and Book Services are only available for individuals aged 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. If you are 13 or older but under the age of 18, you should review this Agreement with your parent or guardian to make sure that you and your parent or guardian understand it.

With Apple's new educational policies, schools will have a program to facilitate Apple obtaining "verifiable parental consent for personal Apple IDs for students under age 13." In addition, Apple also plans to introduce better tools for teachers.

ios7education
iOS 7, which is expected to be released to the public in the fall, offers new Mobile Device Management options allowing teachers to set up managed apps, configure accessibility options, and restrict changes to accounts. Teachers will be able to lock student iPads to a particular app as well, to ensure that students are "on the same activity at the same time."

The new operating system will also bring an App Store Volume Purchase Program designed to allow educational institutions to assign apps to users while maintaining ownership and control over app licenses.

Apple's policy shift comes as the company continues its push for iPads in educational institutions. Apple has been involved in several large deals in recent months and won a $30 million contract from the L.A. Unified School District in June that will see the district purchasing iPads for every student in its 47 schools. Apple also met with the Turkish President earlier this year about a potential $4.5 billion deal that would provide Turkish schoolchildren with as many as 15 million tablets.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Monday June 30, 2025 1:08 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are less than three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
A18 Pro Chip

New MacBook With A18 Pro Chip Spotted in Apple Code

Monday June 30, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is developing a MacBook with the A18 Pro chip, according to findings in backend code uncovered by MacRumors. Earlier today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip. The machine is expected to feature a 13-inch display, the A18 Pro chip, and color options that include silver, blue, pink, and yellow. MacRumors...
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
macbook air spacegray purple

Apple Planning to Launch Low-Cost MacBook Powered By iPhone Chip

Monday June 30, 2025 3:20 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In an article published on X, Kuo explained that the device will feature a 13-inch display and the A18 Pro chip, making it the first Mac powered by an iPhone chip. The A18 Pro chip debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year. To date, all Apple silicon Macs have contained M-series...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
maxresdefault

Five Features Coming to AirPods Pro 3

Friday June 27, 2025 10:52 am PDT by
Apple hasn't updated the AirPods Pro since 2022, and the earbuds are due for a refresh. We're counting on a new model this year, and we've seen several hints of new AirPods tucked away in Apple's code. Rumors suggest that Apple has some exciting new features planned that will make it worthwhile to upgrade to the latest model. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Heal...
replay all time playlist apple music

Apple Music Debuts All-New Personalized Playlist

Monday June 30, 2025 7:16 am PDT by
As part of its 10-year celebrations of Apple Music, Apple today released an all-new personalized playlist that collates your entire listening history. The playlist, called "Replay All Time," expands on Apple Music's existing Replay features. Previously, users could only see their top songs for each individual calendar year that they've been subscribed to Apple Music, but now, Replay All...

Top Rated Comments

SILen(e Avatar
156 months ago
This is basically like 'Kids Mode' on the Nexus 7..

I have to laugh that apple is *only* now finally impleteung this into their products...

All i have to say is.... "What took ya ??"

A welcome, never the less... Not only popular for kids either :)

You are very wrong.

This has nothing to do with parental restriction or similar options - which have been available on iOS for years, before stuff like that had been implemented in Android - this is legal stuff necessary for kids to have their own Apple ID.

This way, a school doesn't need to create Apple IDs A1 to Z99 for their students, but instead the students can create their own Apple IDs and keep stuff they have bought on the school-supplied iPad.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
viacavour Avatar
156 months ago
This is basically like 'Kids Mode' on the Nexus 7..

I have to laugh that apple is *only* now finally impleteung this into their products...

All i have to say is.... "What took ya ??"

A welcome, never the less... Not only popular for kids either :)

I have to laugh at you who seem so eager to cheer for Android. May be better luck next time.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pirg Avatar
156 months ago
This is basically like 'Kids Mode' on the Nexus 7..

I have to laugh that apple is *only* now finally impleteung this into their products...

All i have to say is.... "What took ya ??"

A welcome, never the less... Not only popular for kids either :)

Please do explain why this is "basically like Kids Mode on the Nexus 7".
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SILen(e Avatar
156 months ago
What about the kids that aren't at schools that are using iOS devices.

I think I like my cousins version of this idea better. Make it a sub account of the parents, who can set account level controls etc
i think this whole "You must be over thirteen years old"-stuff is less of a problem when looking at personal iTunes accounts.

Was there ever a mom or dad who stopped shopping for an iPod Touch for their ten year old kid, when they heard that they can't legally create an iTunes account for them?

There are probably millions of ten year olds on Facebook.


This is much more important for schools, because they want to give pupils iPads for school, but young kids can't create their own iTunes accounts schools can't just tell them to lie when entering the date of birth and generic iTunes accounts created by schools are not the optimal solution.

That's why this verifiable parental consent stuff is so important for educational purposes and less important for personal accounts.

Parents can always enter a wrong birthdate, making their child older - but schools can't.


Please do explain why this is "basically like Kids Mode on the Nexus 7".
He never actually read the article or only the subject line with the word "children" in it.

This has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of parental controls or a kids mode.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chupa Chupa Avatar
156 months ago
$4.5B is a drop in the bucket for our national budget, why not buy ipads for 15M Ameican school children? Spread out over three years of use that's only $1.5B a year.
As the erroneously attributed quote not made by Senator Dirken goes: a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.

iPad do not make better students. Better teachers make better students. Start there. Technology has been in U.S. classrooms for decades. When I was a grad student I was involved in a program in a DC high school that had the highest % of underprivileged kids in the metro area. The school had an amazing array of computers and even a mini TV studio. It still had more drop outs than graduates; more failing students than ones that were even eligible to get into the lowest ranked junior college. Most of the teachers gave up and were mostly baby sitters.

My point: if you want to understand the public education problems in the country, tech is not a quick fix nor is spending money. The issues are much deeper, and, unfortunately, very political, in just about every sense of the word. Understand the DC, for example, which has one of the worse school systems in the country -- the president, congressmen and women, and senators won't send their kids there -- spends $18K per student. The national average is around $10K per student.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
blackcrayon Avatar
156 months ago
This is what it's all about. Getting those kiddies acquainted with the iTunes/App Store ecosystem. It's a great idea.

It's also what those low cost iPhones are all about. Making more money off that 30% cut Apple get from App Devs and then their music/money services.

Yeah, those kids could grow up thinking it's actually ok to pay for software. Pretty disgusting, Apple!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)