How do I let my child own his own games?

[mcv]

At the moment, my kid is playing games on my account, but he now wants to buy a game with his own money. It feels wrong to add it to my account, but if I give him his own account, he loses access to my games. What's the best way to solve this?

I've read about family view, and in some descriptions, it sounds a bit like it might be a separate account for my kid that also has access to my "family games", but I'm not sure if that's really the case. I fear I may have to choose between the two.

What I'd really like is some transitional account where he can play my games but also start collecting his own games, and when he grows up, turn it into a stand-alone account that keeps his own games but loses access to mine. But I'm not sure this is something Steam supports.

[Count_Dandyman]

Family view isn't a seperate account it's just a set of filters that can only be disabled by using a specific code you set that can be used to control the games and features an account has access to. The family sharing feature is your best option with it you can give his account permission to access your accounts library of games.

The only possible issues is that only one account can play games from a library at any time so if you are playing any game from your library he won't be able to play any of them while you are and that some games aren't possible to share with it.

[Supafly]

Create him an account. Buy game on that account with his money. Then Family share your library with him. Are some restrictions with family share and not all games support it.

[mcv]

Thanks! That's exactly what I was hoping for.

I think I kept mixing up Family View and Family Sharing. Sharing is what I need.

[JohnMars78]

You should also be aware of the VAC system. When creating your kid's account, use his phone number, assuming he has one. Make sure he understands that cheating while playing the shared games and getting his account banned could get a ban on your account as well.
I'm not saying that he'll cheat, but it's something to keep in mind.

[mcv]

What is the VAC system? And why is his phone number necessary? For now, I created it with my own secondary email address. We'll probably switch it to his own contact info at some point in the future.

[Tev]

Originally posted by mcv:

What is the VAC system? And why is his phone number necessary? For now, I created it with my own secondary email address. We'll probably switch it to his own contact info at some point in the future.

It stands for Valve Anti-Cheat.

Basically, if you share your library to him and he cheats in any of your VAC protected games, you too will potentially get VAC banned. Nothing prevents you from using Steam Family View (the parental lock feature) to prevent him from playing any of your VAC protected games though.

The phone number is relevant for the same reasons kind of. If you share the same phone number and he cheats in any VAC protected games, all the accounts sharing the phone number at the time of infraction will get VAC banned.

If he's not the cheating kind, then there's no issue.

[BossGalaga]

Originally posted by mcv:

What is the VAC system? And why is his phone number necessary? For now, I created it with my own secondary email address. We'll probably switch it to his own contact info at some point in the future.

It is not necessary to associate a phone number to a Steam account unless you want to enable Steam trading with no delays.

[The HopelessGamer™]

Keep in mind, Certain games cannot be shared via family share such as for example CSGO.

[BossGalaga]

The holiday sale next month will be a great oppportunity to get games cheap for your child's account.