Want to gift my steam account to my son who took it over

[AlexNlol]

My son has been playing my steam account for a few years now and has his friends and achievements. Rather than take it back from him, I want to gift the account to him and start over.

Am I able to change my email address to his, then immediately create another using my email again?

[Cathulhu]

No. You are not allowed to give ANYONE access to your account.
Read the Steam Subscriber Agreement.
Valve can permanently suspend or even simply terminate the account for what you are doing right now.

[Elucidator]

You won't get terminated just for posting a message with a question.
You may want to contact support and see what hey can and cannot do. Like cathulu said, you're supposed to each have an individual account.

Your son should have had their own account, but perhaps they just logged in on it without your knowledge or consent, etc. and you only found that out later, etc.
point is...
yeah it is a point that has been brought up before, and honestly its kinda dumb in their system, but indeed you don't actually own your permisions. You only have permission to use these permissions to play the game, and so you can't really pass on the permission to use permissions, despite technically you should be able to. e.e;
It will become a legal matter at some point I guess.
idk- its complicated. Due to the way Steam was initially set up and how it is now big, they made a number of mistakes so it cannot easily be fixed at least. You can't transfer a game yet either for example.
x.x;

(removed the joke)
considering achievements and playtime and such, a number have been wondering why steam hasn't let them reset their achievement status either.
the system is kinda.. complicated.
the ssa is, basically an easy mode excuse, but I honestly don't think its in line with laws. (you should be able to pass on stuff you bought I think, basically, even if it was a permission to use permissions.)
but I don't think that they can change that very quickly even if it was legally looked at basically.

keep in mind valve is a for profit company so, sometimes they say things just to make people buy more often; which doesn't make it right.

Anyway I can't help you. (I don't know how to change email on my head anyway either)

I recommend checking the current version of the SSA and the FAQ as well (see steam support). If you have questions on that thing, contact them since they have the latest information.
---

(edit here)
Here's a quote from the SSA

You may not reveal, share or otherwise allow others to use your password or Account except as otherwise specifically authorized by Valve. You are responsible for the confidentiality of your login and password and for the security of your computer system. Valve is not responsible for the use of your password and Account or for all of the communication and activity on Steam that results from use of your login name and password by you, or by any person to whom you may have intentionally or by negligence disclosed your login and/or password in violation of this confidentiality provision.

So you can see that you likely will not get terminated anyway (apparently). Valve claims your account is your responsibility, but they rather have that each account belongs to a single user (see the share part). ... unless valve grants permission to otherwise do so. xD so yeah, you can get 'official permission' I suppose to transfer account ownership or have a double owner.

[Matt]

You can change the contact email in Steam settings.

If the account name is an email address (only applies to really old accounts) then that cannot be changed.

[AlexNlol]

Thanks. He took it over when he was about 8 or 9, so It's pretty much his account now, just my email. With Lost Ark coming I didn't want to share the account for obvious reasons. I did read I can change the email address so I will try that first, then go from there.

[AlexNlol]

Originally posted by Matt:

You can change the contact email in Steam settings.

If the account name is an email address (only applies to really old accounts) then that cannot be changed.

Thanks Matt. It is not email so I will try that. Want to do this the right way.

[Matt]

You’re not supposed to share or give away accounts. But that’s up to OP to decide. Answering a question about how to change the email on file is not against the rules. Pick your battles.

[my new friend]

Then again, this is how most child accounts are fully handed over to the child once they are old enough (in Valve's case 13) to have their own account.
Wait a minute, who deleted the comment?

[zaphodikus]

I think the issue is that technically the games in the account are licensed to "you", you don't "own" them. This discussion has been had many many times, technically it treads the line into bootlegging, and honestly since the new account holder cannot reset playtime and cannot "delete" games, it's not really ever their own account even after they set up new payment method details and recovery email. I just hope they add a 2FA device.

Agree, nobody needs to know.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Cathulhu:

No. You are not allowed to give ANYONE access to your account.
Read the Steam Subscriber Agreement.
Valve can permanently suspend or even simply terminate the account for what you are doing right now.

While this is absolutely true, Valve are usually fine with inheritance.