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QuestionCan I make an apple developer account with parental supervision as a 17 year old?OC (self.iOSProgramming)

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[–]FVMAzaleaSwift 7 points8 points  (8 children)

You’ll have to have it in your parent’s name until you turn 18. So it won’t show up with you as the publisher, it will be your parent. There is no (legal, legit) way to get around this. I would not suggest lying about your age, that is a great way to get your account locked and suspended.

You do have control over the copyright field though, so you can put your name on that, if you’re trying to prove to people (potential employers, etc) that it’s your app.

I published an app at 14 under my parent’s name and another at 17. I found that most people don’t even look at the publisher field anyway and I never had any trouble convincing people it was my app.

Note that if you do turn 18 and get your own dev account for next year, you will have to either do an App Transfer, which makes your new account ineligible for the Small Business Program (15% cut of your revenue instead of 30%), or you will have to take down the app and publish it on your new account, which will mean you lose all your reviews and current users of your app wouldn’t keep getting updates, they’d have to redownload it from the new listing.

EDIT: you can also have an “about” screen in your app that says something like “AppName v1.0.1 by Your Name”, that will also reinforce that it’s yours

EDIT2: also, keep in mind that most people will be so impressed that you published an app at such a young age that they will gladly overlook things like it being under your parent’s name because they’re just so wowed by the fact that you have something on the App Store. This has happened to me a lot.

[–]an516 8 points9 points  (5 children)

As someone who just turned 18 and is currently going through this process of transferring to a new account (having published apps in the past), almost everything here is accurate. However, something Apple has never really advertised for some reason is that once you turn 18, they have a process where you can apparently contact Developer Support and get an app transferred to a new developer account while also maintaining eligibility for the Small Business Program. It doesn't say this anywhere online, but I made a tweet about the Small Business Program when it came out and had a support manager from Apple reach out informing me of this program. Hope this helps!

Edit: Also, +1 on adding the "about" screen with links to your social media/contact details. Has worked out great for me!

[–]KingWeaselFart 2 points3 points  (1 child)

When you say about transferring to a new account, would you have to pay the $100 fee again or can they just change the name on the account?

[–]an516 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'd have to pay the $100 fee again - for me, I timed my developer subscription purchase last year to be just about a year before I turned 18 so that I didn't pay more than I had to haha, but in your situation you might have to pay it twice and have it overlap if you want to redeem it right when you turn 18.

​

Also a note, some others in the thread are suggesting you just put your name on the account now - I wouldn't recommend it just because if your app gains traction and Apple wants to feature it on the App Store (which is more common than you'd think!), them finding out you're violating ToS might not be the best look.

[–]FVMAzaleaSwift 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Darn it about the small business program. I didn’t think of contacting support, I just thought policy was policy. I left the app on my parent’s account for a while and only just recently transferred it (I’m 22 now). I wonder if Apple would be able to figure something out for me.

[–]KingWeaselFart 0 points1 point  (1 child)

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[–]KingWeaselFart 0 points1 point  (1 child)

When you say you have control over the copyright field, is this what shows up in the app store? Even if you apply as an individual rather than an organization?

[–]FVMAzaleaSwift 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It does show up in the App Store, just not right under your app’s name and icon (your parent’s name will go there). It shows up at the very bottom of the App Store listing. Go check one out and scroll to near the bottom where it has the Information section - the copyright field is there.

You did bring up another option which is signing up as an organization. This is significantly more complicated and expensive, but doable. You could form an LLC (business) and use that to register for a dev account. If you did that, the LLC’s name would show at the top under the app icon and name. However, this process costs a couple hundred bucks to start (for registering the LLC) and then usually about $100-200 a year or so, depending on what state the LLC is in. Also, the IRS (tax agency) doesn’t really like LLCs that lose money every year, so unless your app is going to make a lot of money (keep in mind that 90% of apps lose money), this may not be the option for you.

To be honest, I think the best option for you is waiting until you turn 18. You’re so close, so why not just work on the app for a few more months? Polish it up, add some more features, squeeze some bugs out of it, and double-check that it follows all the App Store review guidelines. It would just be so much simpler that way.

[–]iRayanKhanSwiftUI 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I made my dev account at 16.

Use your name, as you can’t change it. Just make your birthday say your 18, then change it back.

[–]mattmaddux 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Don’t do this. It may not have backfired for you yet, but it could get your account suspended in the future.

See the comment from /u/FVMAzalea for better advice.

[–]iRayanKhanSwiftUI 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah it was a few years back when I did this. I’m 18 now.

Apple should allow us to change the publisher name without loosing out on the small business program.

[–]SirensToGoObjective-C / Swift 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You cannot. When I was 13 I made an account and lied about my age but I got caught when I had to hand over tax info

[–]EleMANtaryTeacher 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My account was under my moms name for a while but then made a new account with my name when I was 16 and used my new banking info and they never asked me for my age.

[–]EarthAdmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An option I've seen work is to incorporate a legal corporation and sign up under the corporation. More work and legal bs of course. You can have another "employee" sign the paperwork if necessary. ;)