Turn on Ask to Buy for Family Sharing purchases
As the family organizer, you can require young family members to request approval when they use the shared credit card for purchases or free downloads from the iTunes Store, the App Store, and Apple Books. You can approve these requests using your own iOS (iOS 8 or later) and iPadOS device or Mac (OS X 10.10 or later). You can designate other adult family members as parents or guardians so they can approve these requests using their devices.
For information about changing Family Sharing settings using an iOS or iPadOS device, see the Apple Support article What is Family Sharing?
Turn Ask to Buy on or off
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
, then select Ask To Buy in the sidebar.Select or deselect the checkbox next to a family member’s name.
Note: Age restrictions for Ask to Buy vary by area. In the United States, the family organizer can enable Ask to Buy for any family member under age 18; for children under age 13, it’s enabled by default.
Ask to Buy isn’t available for adults. To stop paying for an adult’s purchases, remove that person from Family Sharing. For instructions, see Manage a Family Sharing group on Mac.
Let other adults approve Ask to Buy requests
The family organizer can designate any adult family member as a parent or guardian who can approve Ask to Buy requests. All parents and guardians in a family receive a notification when a child family member has Ask to Buy turned on as described above and initiates a purchase using the shared credit card.
On your Mac, choose Apple menu
Click the Details button for an adult family member.
Click Edit.
In the Family Roles window, select Parent/Guardian, then click Done.
Click Done.
Approve or decline a purchase request
As a parent or guardian in your Family Sharing group, you can approve or decline a purchase requested by a child in your family.
On your Mac, do any of the following:
When you get a purchase request notification in the top-right corner of your screen, click its Details button, then click Approve or Decline at the top of the iTunes Store Preview window that appears. Or, you can respond later by clicking Not Now in the notification.
To respond to a postponed purchase request, click the date and time in the menu bar, then click the purchase request in the Family section of the list.