Charge 3 setup for child

[Busymum07]

We have bought our son a Charge 3 for his birthday (lucky lad) but when we try to set it up it says it has to be set up by an adult so I put my details in. It says you can then set up your family account and add a child. I did that but the only thing it will let me pair with is a Fitbit Ace which is not what we have. Can’t find anything that tells me how to set up a charge 3 for a child, help!

Moderator edit: subject

[burnbabybyrne]

As @AlejandraFitbit suggested: I recommend taking a look at the Allow More Fitbit Devices than Ace to Family Account request, vote for it and leave your comment.

[LZeeW]

@Nick4074  Not a special version of the phone, but through the Family Account, which is accessed through the phone app.  The way I understand it, children's data cannot be accessed on the fitbit.com (web) dashboard.  I am neither a software engineer nor a lawyer, but the current set up is the one that satisfies COPPA and the GDPR.

There is clearly interest in having more advanced trackers available for children.  People who want to see this changed should vote for the Feature Suggestion mention in this thread.

[AlejandraFitbit]

Hello all, I hope you are doing well.

As mentioned previously, Fitbit Ace is the only tracker Fitbit has for kids and, therefore, is the only one that a kid account will accept. The Charge 3 can be set up only on a regular account for anyone who meets the minimum age requirement in your country.

For more information check the help article How do I manage my Fitbit family account?.

Let me know if you need anything else. 

[Nick4074]

your missing the point.

[Buffalouser]

YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT!

THE "Kids" version should have been disclosed at point of purches not AFTER
THE FACT ON A BLOG!

The consumer has been fooled again. Now I have to take this Christmas gift
away from a child and give them a "Toy" .

My child is an athlete and needs data.

Again, my social media will be giving a mass EPIC FAIL TO THIS PRODUCT!

[AlejandraFitbit]

Thanks for your participation in the Community @Buffalouser and @Nick4074.

I appreciate the feedback provided. Fitbit Ace, a tracker for kids 8 years and up tracks steps, active minutes and sleep as well as reminders to move, goal celebrations and badges. It is showerproof and has a battery life of up to 10 days, you can find out more here. Thank you for sharing your ideas in the community.

Keep the stepping up! 

[Danymummy]

Is there a age limit for Charge 3? We bought it for our 13year old and cant set the account for him...

[LZeeW]

@Danymummy  Hello, and welcome to the forums.  If you are in the US, a 13 year old can have his own account with his own email address as a user.  No Family Account required. 

If you are in the EU, the age varies from 13-16.

How is your set up going haywire?  How can we help?

[UnfitFather]

I find it hilarious that you marked the status of that as SOLVED! 

I get it, making a family shared account seems hard, everyone seems to make it near unusable and then use government laws as an excuse.

This is a problem in the software and the applications.  Get your product team and architect to interview a few actual users with actual kids, read the privacy laws and then give us all an app we can use when we give our families fitbits of any kind we choose. It's called roles, permissions, and rights and I am positive your development team would have gotten this right except I bet your product and business teams stepped in and kicked it up during the "requirements" process.

Here, I'll write the user story for you since no doubt you're running "agile" although you may have forgotten the step where you take the early outcome to the users and check to see if you've gotten it right.

"As a user, I'd like to be able to give my child under the age of 13 any Fitbit I choose. Per the government rulings on privacy for underage minors  I would like to be able to disable their access to social network integrations while still allowing them to sync their me to the device along with collecting fitness data and sending it to their phone or tablet and our family account."

[UnfitFather]

I find it hilarious that you marked the status of that as SOLVED! 

I get it, making a family shared account seems hard, everyone seems to make it near unusable and then use government laws as an excuse.

This is a problem in the software and the applications.  Get your product team and architect to interview a few actual users with actual kids, read the privacy laws and then give us all an app we can use when we give our families fitbits of any kind we choose. It's called roles, permissions, and rights and I am positive your development team would have gotten this right except I bet your product and business teams stepped in and kicked it up during the "requirements" process.

[UnfitFather]

Here, I'll write the user story for you since no doubt you're running "agile" although you may have forgotten the step where you take the early outcome to the users and check to see if you've gotten it right.

"As a user, I'd like to be able to give my child under the age of 13 any Fitbit I choose. Per the government rulings on privacy for underage minors  I would like to be able to disable their access to social network integrations while still allowing them to sync their name to the device along with collecting fitness data and sendijg it to their tablet or phone alomg.with the cloud where as their guardian only them and I can see their private information.".

Cheers 

[UnfitFather]

Here, I'll write the user story for you since no doubt you're running "agile" although you may have forgotten the step where you take the early outcome to the users and check to see if you've gotten it right.

"As a user, I'd like to be able to give my child under the age of 13 any Fitbit I choose. Per the government rulings on privacy for underage minors  I would like to be able to disable their access to social network integrations while still allowing them to sync their name to the device along with collecting fitness data and sendijg it to their tablet or phone alomg.with the cloud where as their guardian only them and I can see their private information." 

[SunsetRunner]

I was looking to purchase a Fitbit Charge 3 for my son in the hope that I could use the Fitbit family features with it. I see that you cannot and I am extremely disappointed. This is very short-sighted by Fitbit. I don't like the Fitbit Ace and wouldn't buy it for my son. Sadly I'll go elsewhere.

[Irvspad]

Just bought my daughter a Fitbit 3 for her 11th birthday only to discover she can't use it.

She's upset and we're left asking why Fitbit failed to advertise the age restrictions. 

She does not want an Ace. Hopefully we can return for full refund.

Fitbit, figure this out and make sure you are clear that Ace is tye only Fitbit available for children. Know your customer, and give Parents the flexibility to buy their children other devices. 

Dissatisfied.

[Irvspad]

PS its not difficult to put "For Ages 13+" with disclaimer why on.the box.

[ftbtistonedeaf]

For a moment, let the defense go.  Critical thinking is more helpful. 

Fitbit can alter how it stores data for users based on reported birthdays.  It can protect privacy based on birthdays.  It is convenient for Fitbit that it can point to EU and US restrictions as an excuse not to change.  It is convenient that Fitbit can create "kid" devices and then push for customers to replace them later.  The intellectually honest person sees that the current design is more profitable.  If it was a simple matter of standards and regulations, Fitbit would be honest in its marketing of its non-kid devices.  They know that many customers will not end up returning the devices once the betrayal is revealed.  They sometimes will just add the Ace.  This is a dirty business. 

It would be helpful to be real.  It would be helpful to pressure the company to change.  The "normalcy" of an account and its data/privacy policies does not have to be linked solely to the device type.  It is convenient though.  

[LindaYGK]

Very disappointing as we bought it for the swim feature.  Waste of money

[BVBravo]

This is NOT correct. I tried to set it up for my 15 year old and it DID NOT work.

[LindaYGK]

I think you must be replying to someone else. We also had trouble and indicated it was a waste of money.   the only way you can do it is step it up with an adult age. 

[Gorengan]

However, nothing stops FITBIT from allowing other trackers to be attached to the family controlled accounts as it is a simple matter of coding in the app. The second part of your answer is entirely off topic. The age restrictions imposed by US Federal Law are not applicable globally and have nothing to do with what devices FITBIT chooses to link to their family accounts.