Managed Accounts: Looking After the Profiles of Elders and Young Children

In almost every family using a lineage system, there are a few people who will never log in themselves: a grandmother who is not comfortable with a smartphone, and children too young to have an account.

The usual solution — sharing a password — is the worst one available.

Why sharing a password fails

• A shared password cannot be taken back without changing it for everyone
• The log shows grandmother doing something at 2am when in fact it was her grandchild
• Someone allowed to update an address can equally change the password, delete photos, or leave the family

Powers are granted one at a time

A managed account works differently. The guardian logs in as themselves, then switches to the profile they look after. What they can do there depends on the powers granted specifically:

• View the profile, or view and edit it
• Manage photos
• View documents, or upload documents
• Confirm attendance at events
• Read chat
• Edit the family tree

An empty list means nothing is allowed. A power that was not granted is not merely hidden from the screen — it is refused on the server too.

What a guardian can never do

Login credentials stay with their owner. While acting on someone else's behalf, the password, device and family sections disappear from the screen entirely, and an attempt to change the password is refused. A guardian switches profile, not identity.

The audit log records two names

Every delegated action writes both identities: who pressed the button, and on whose behalf. Without that, the record makes it look as though grandmother uploaded the document herself — and when a question comes up three years later, nobody can answer it.

A revoked power takes effect immediately

When a guardian's power is withdrawn, an already-open session cannot keep working until logout. The system rechecks the power on every action, not once at the start of the session.

When a managed account is the right fit

• Older members who want a complete profile but do not want to maintain it themselves
• Minors, where a parent holds control until the child is old enough
• Family members who are ill or temporarily unable to manage their own account