Linking Charge 5 a to child account

[BonyT]

My 10yo son has been using a Charge 5 for a year now, for running training etc. 

Fitbit/Google say the Ace devices are the only ones they will allow to connect to child accounts, but there’s seems no justification as to why?!?

The Ace devices don’t offer the functionality of the Charge devices, and if due to his age, his Google account (required for Fitbit set up) is connected to the family Google security account, I don’t see why this is an issue?

Fitbit chat sends me links for privacy laws etc, but if ithe account and the device are all protected within the family account, I don’t see the issue, unless Fitbit/Google are controlling the market in some way.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject.

[BonyT]

For the record, his device is connected to my account / email, but with his physical stats (height, weight etc)

[LZeeW · Accepted solution]

Hello @BonyT and welcome to the Community.  I hope I can make sense of this for you.  In a nutshell, your son can't have his own Fitbit account for the same reason he can't have his own Facebook or Instagram accounts.  The issue is how Fitbit collects and stores data from all its devices, except the Ace series.  Fitbit's data collection on an "adult' model isn't compliant with US and international (especially EU) internet privacy protection laws.  Ace data is.

[BonyT]

Thank you… Your reply explains if better than the numerous online support chats I’ve had with Fitbit, but still seems odd to me.

Effectively, he can’t have a Fitbit account, but can have a Google email account, which Fitbit requires you to have for a Fitbit account…? Can’t be that hard to align the data storage between Google and Fitbit to have the same security and privacy settings.

Will check out the market for something that will work as we need it to, and sell this device on

[LZeeW]

@BonyT   This issue is online data privacy and protection.  COPPA, the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act, applies in the US.  GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, applies in the EU.  Other countries have their own laws.  I don't know the details of what makes a site COPPA compliant or not.

'Adult' Fitbit accounts are web based.  They are online.  Ace series data is only on the Fitbit app.  Ace models have a Parent view/Kid view in the Fitbit app.

Your son's Gmail account isn't the same as your Gmail account.  He has a supervised Google account that gets its privacy protections from Google Family Link.

Does this help?