Icloud help

[harlenmm77]

I'm new to Iphones, sort off. I used to have one but it's been years. I've had an icloud account and iTunes account for a long time. But my kids have had Iphones and I pads for years, and my iTunes account is on them because they are young and I don't want them buying anything. Plus I can keep track of the devices easily. Anyway, how do I get the number in my icloud account changed? I'll attach a pic below, but that's my kids number. If I go to put mine in, it throws an error that the number I added is already associated with the account. Does it matter, do I need to change the number listed?

It's kind of a bad method to use the same account on multiple phones because when I got this one, I was getting the iMessages my son was doing on my phone and it took me a while to figure out how to stop that.

On a separate note, their I pads are set up with a different apple id and I can't track them from my phone. Is there a way to add my apple account to those devices so I don't need to go to a computer when I want to find them?

Sorry about the long post.

 

[jetsam]

Every user should have their own Apple ID. They are not meant to be shared. Sharing an Apple ID leads to unnecessary (and sometime unfixable) complications.

To prevent your kids from making purchases, set Restrictions on their iDevices (Settings > General > Restrictions). You can also remove the funding method from their accounts.
Apple Discussion:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204396

To track your kids from your iPhone, use the "Find my Friends" App. It's built-in to iOS 9 and 10, and can be downloaded for free from the app store for iOS 8.
Apple Discussion:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201493

You might also want to have a look at Family Sharing:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201088

 

[harlenmm77]

Thank you. What happens to all the apps they have now if I remove my iTunes account from their phones and replace it with a new one? Do they lose their purchases?

 

[harlenmm77]

Just tried the find friends with my mom. It showed me where the phone was, but didn't allow me to make it beep, which is what I need.

 

[jetsam]

Thank you. What happens to all the apps they have now if I remove my iTunes account from their phones and replace it with a new one? Do they lose their purchases?

They don't lose their purchases. The complication comes when an app needs to be updated. That will require them to login with your account to enable update of an app associated with that account.
To avoid this issue, they could delete the app and re-install it with their own Apple ID. If the app has a history they want to save, and the history is saved on the iPhone, rather than a server, that's going to be a problem.
Assuming saving history is not an issue, free apps can be deleted and gotten afresh from the app store. Pay apps can be shared to them via Family Sharing.
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Just tried the find friends with my mom. It showed me where the phone was, but didn't allow me to make it beep, which is what I need.

You mean the "Find my iPhone" beep? There is a "Find my iPhone" app on the iPhone. To use it to find someone else's iDevice, you'll need to know their Apple ID and password. I assume you will know your kids' Apple ID and password.

Perhaps I could be more helpful if you could explain why you need the beep.