How to Make a Shared Family Library for Your Digital Life

Shared Family Libraries on Apple

Apple lets you set up Family Sharing through iCloud. If you're on a Mac, iPhone, or iPad, you can set up a family account in iTunes and share content with family members. 

Prerequisites:

You'll need to designate one adult with a verified credit card and an Apple ID to manage the family account.

You can only belong to one family group at a time.

From a Mac Desktop:

1. Go to System Preferences.
2. Select iCloud.
3. Login with your Apple ID.
4. Select Set Up Family.

You'll then be able to follow the instructions and send out invitations to other family members. Each person needs their own Apple ID. Once you've created a family group, you have the option of using it to share most of your content in other Apple apps. You can share most purchased or family-created content from Apple this way, so books from iBooks, movies, music, and TV shows from iTunes, and so on. Apple even lets you share your location through family groups. Sharing works slightly differently with iPhoto, where you can share individual albums with larger groups of friends and family, but you can't share full access to your entire library.

Leaving the Family

The adult who owns the account keeps the content when family members leave, either by divorce and separation or by growing up and creating family accounts of their own.

Family Profiles on Your Netflix Account

Netflix manages sharing by letting you create viewing profiles. This is a brilliant move for several reasons. First, you can restrict your children to content made for kids, and secondly because the Netflix suggestion engine can better tailor suggestions to you alone. Otherwise, your recommended videos can seem random.

If you haven't set up Netflix profiles, this is how you do it:

1. When you log into Netflix, you should see your name and an icon for your avatar on the upper right side.
2. If you click on your avatar, you can select Manage Profiles.
3. From here you can create new profiles.
4. Create one for every family member and give them distinct avatar pictures.

You can specify the age level for media on each profile. Levels include all maturity levels, teens and below, older kids and below, and little kids only. If you check the box next to Kid? only movies and TV rated for viewers 12 and younger will be shown (older kids and below).

Once you have profiles set up, you will see a choice of profiles every time you log into Netflix.

Leaving the Family

Netflix content is rented, not owned, so there's no question of digital property transfer. The account owner can just change their Netflix password and delete a profile. The history and recommended videos will disappear with the account.

Family Libraries with Amazon.com

Amazon Household allows two adults and up to four children to share any digital content purchased from Amazon, including books, apps, videos, music, and audiobooks. Furthermore, the two adults can share the same Amazon Prime shopping benefits. All users log in through separate accounts on their devices, and children will only see the content they're authorized to view. Parents concerned about screen time can also specify when children see content on some Kindle devices, through Amazon's free time settings.

To set up an Amazon Household:

1. Log into your Amazon account.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the Amazon screen and select Manage Your Content and Devices.
3. Select the Preferences tab.
4. Under Households and Family Library, select either Invite an Adult or Add a Child as appropriate. Adults need to be present to be added and their password is required.

Each child will get an avatar so you can easily tell what content is in their Family Library.

Once you have a library set up, you can use the Your Content tab to put items in the Family Library of each child. (Adults see all shared content by default.) You can add items individually, but this is less efficient. Use the checkbox on the left side to select multiple items and add them to a child's library in bulk.

The Your Devices tab allows you to manage the Kindle portion of any phones, tablets, Fire sticks, or other devices running the Kindle app.

Leaving the Family

The two adult owners can leave at any time. They each take possession of the content they purchased through their own profile.

Google Play Family Libraries

Google Play lets you make a Family Library to share books, movies, and music you purchase through the Google Play Store with up to six members of a family group. Each user will need to have to have their own Gmail account, so this is an option that only works for users who are age 13 and older.

1. Log into Google Play from your desktop.
2. Go to Account.
3. Select Family.
4. Select the Sign up for Family Library link and follow the instructions to invite family members.

Because family groups in Google are at least teenagers, you can choose to either add all purchases to the library by default or add them individually.

You can control access to content on individual Android devices by creating child profiles and adding parental controls to the content rather than by centrally managing it through the Google Play Family Library.

Leaving the Family Library

The individual who set up the Family Library retains all the content and manages membership. He or she can remove members at any time. Removed members then lose access to any shared content.