Mother Describes the Dark Side of Apple's Family Sharing

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Mac: A mother with court-ordered custody of her children has described how Apple's Family Sharing feature can be weaponized by a former partner. Apple support staff were unable to assist her when she reported her former partner using the service in controlling and coercive ways... Namely, Family Sharing gives all the control to one parent, not to both equally. The parent not identified as the organizer is unable to withdraw their children from this control, even when they have a court order granting them custody. As one woman's story shows, this can allow the feature which allows it to be weaponized by an abusive former partner.

Wired reports: 'The lack of dual-organizer roles, leaving other parents effectively as subordinate admins with more limited power, can prove limiting and frustrating in blended and shared households. And in darker scenarios, a single-organizer setup isn't merely inconvenient -- it can be dangerous. Kate (name changed to protect her privacy and safety) knows this firsthand. When her marriage collapsed, she says, her now ex-husband, the designated organizer, essentially weaponized Family Sharing. He tracked their children's locations, counted their screen minutes and demanded they account for them, and imposed draconian limits during Kate's custody days while lifting them on his own After they separated, Kate's ex refused to disband the family group. But without his consent, the children couldn't be transferred to a new one. 'I wrongly assumed being the custodial parent with a court order meant I'd be able to have Apple move my children to a new family group, with me as the organizer,' says Kate. But Apple couldn't help. Support staff sympathized but said their hands were tied because the organizer holds the power.' Although users can 'abandon the accounts and start again with new Apple IDs,' the report notes that doing so means losing all purchased apps, along with potentially years' worth of photos and videos.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.