New ipad for child. Should he have his own apple account, or use ours?

[pharmjenn]

I got my DS6 the ipad mini on black Friday, and just received it today. My DH had been talking about whether we should use DH's apple account, or get DS his own. I have also been an android person, so have limited knowledge of apple. I wanted to ipad so on road trips we could have downloaded movies on iTunes for him.

What I have thought of:
Pros to own account: No money on iTunes unless we put it there, so he can't use up all of DH money buying game apps.
Pros to using DH's: Can put the iTunes library we already own onto it. DS enjoys finding songs he likes (Chipmunks, Toy Story etc) DH says he can "share" his library though.

If I sign up for his own account, and give his age, does apple limit what he can do? Should I make it an adult account or use his real BD?

On my android tablet and phone, DS always asks if he can get a new game, or a new "piece, player" for a game. I am sure he has tried to get them himself, but they don't automatically log into the play store, so he can't buy anything.

Thanks for any input. I would love to get this set up for him today or tomorrow.

[egoldber]

All 4 of us share one Apple ID. That allows us to share apps and games among our many iDevices. Just don't give them the password and they can't buy things in iTunes.

For texting, calendars, and e-mail, you each need your own iCloud IDs.

[o_mom]

We ended up using a family account for iTunes so apps and music can be shared. I only fund it with gift cards so it is not linked to any bank accounts (I did this anyway previously). The in-app purchases are disabled and a password is required for any purchases, even free apps.

Then they each have an apple ID that is linked to the iCloud. That way their backups are separate, if you do messaging or photostream it will be separate as well. I think I had to lie about birthdates to get them to work, but the kids don't really have access to them at this point. They don't know they exist and don't have the password.

[pharmjenn]

Thanks for the info. I will wait for DH to get home and set it up tonight. I think we will use his account, and like o_mom, fund it with gift cards. That is mostly what we do now.
I know he will use the camera, but will deal with sending photos later.