Family account / child device - Need some help on device registration and user account

Laws forbid Garmin to keep data of children, hence the only workaround is creating an account with the BoD sufficiently old. In this way it is you who is breaking the law, not Garmin. Unless they learn it, and in that case they will disable the account.

Hi trux,

Yeah I mean the DoB is the obvious one to get her an account, it's just a shame that I can't be the owner of the watch but she has full control if you see what I mean. I don't see why it's a problem linking a device to an account but the end user might not necessarily be the owner.

Mitch Peplow said:

I don't see why it's a problem linking a device to an account but the end user might not necessarily be the owner.

Because it is breaking the laws. Companies are prohibited from collecting and storing the data of underage persons, and it does not matter who owns the device. It still breaks the laws. You (and your daughter) are free to use the device as long as you do not need the online Garmin Connect account.

trux said:

Companies are prohibited from collecting and storing the data of underage persons, and it does not matter who owns the device.

Correct, but then again with our iPhones we have Apple Family setup, so I'm the owner and I own her device, yet she can use it and have full control whilst having her own child account, so it can be done, but I'm assuming from what you've said this just isn't currently possible with Garmin so I'll have to fudge the account DoB.

You do not need the online Garmin Connect account to use the watch. If you want, create a separate "family" GC account in your name, add the device to it, and let your kid using it (if you do not mind breaking the laws). Or just let her use the device without the online account.

Do you lose out on any features if you don't use GCM though? Functionally it will work, but for stats and stuff she'll need GCM right? 

That's right. Stats are exactly the type of data that Garmin is prohibited to collect at underage persons. You'd need to use an offline 3rd party solution such as for example the Golden Cheetah, to get some stats.

Lovely stuff, cheers trux

Garmin has child accounts that save kids activity via the Vivofit Jr. There is a totally separate app that allows me to see my child's dashboard and even allows you to add chores or challenges. 

My son is getting too old for the kid watch and I was hoping to upgrade to another Garmin format but didn't realize there's no way to create a family account or even continue using the child account with the new watch. 

Hope Garmin finds a solution soon!!