[Someone1234]

> sort of "kids" account comes with random restrictions, needing to create parent account and all sort of other bullshit that complicate everyone's life and prolong the sign-up process.

I set up one of these for Apple and Microsoft, and boy oh boy, has it been an absolute shit-show. There have been tons of bugs with both, it is a terrible user experience all around, and it has actually cost me more money in very real terms (e.g. IAPs needing to be re-purchased three times).

Unfortunately it seems like nobody at tech companies actually dog-foods kid/family accounts, and just does it as a butt covering exercise to avoid regulation. They do the bare minimum and then let it rot.

[donmcronald]

Yep. It's absolutely brutal. Ex: EA Play won't work with XBox Game Pass if it's on a child account.

All the kids I know just use fake info with fake birthdays. There's a huge risk of losing the account, but who even knows what to do. Obviously these companies don't want to invest in moderation, so I think they should focus on moderation tools and leave the parent/organizer account holders do the actual moderation.

Microsoft does the money handling on child accounts really well, but the family sharing is absolutely brutal. It's an insanely bad user experience.