Parental Consent Loop

Question

My child who is 17 turning 18 in a couple of months is being informed they need parental consent to access any Microsoft Services. When I use Family Safety to try and grant them consent I am told they already have consent. They have been using this service for about 8 years now with no issues until a month or so ago. (It seems to me, that somewhere in Microsoft's systems they have an incorrect Date of Birth recorded - but I have no way of verifying this)

This is what they see

It does not matter which avenue we attempt from that screen (using either button, incognito browser windows, different devices) this is what I end up with once I attempt to grant them access.

... and needless to say, no change to their ability to access any M365 services.

We have tried removing them from our Family Subscription to M365. The only effect of that has been that they are unable to accept a new invitation due to being unable to fully log on and accept the invitation. I have engaged Microsoft's first level support on four occasions, now having spent about 5 hours showing them the never-ending loop, and on two occasions having them tell me this will require a higher level of Microsoft support to remedy the issue. The last of these interactions resulted in Microsoft scheduling an appointment with me and a higher-level support person. It is now 95 minutes after they were supposed to have called.

A very similar issue is well documented here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5614644/unable-to-log-in-due-to-family-safety-parental-con but it does not appear as though there has been any resolution on that case either.

My child is unable to log on and even contact the support services, I am doing that much for them. I have no idea of where we can go for assistance. Every interaction with live support agents results in another wasted hour or so re-demonstrating the issue, and a promise from Microsoft to follow up, and then nothing, even when they make an appointment to call me.

My child is able to reset the password on the account but are not able to access any services. We would be happy to abandon the account but there is data in there which they want to retain. This is particularly galling as I am paying for them to be able to access M365, yet I can't get any traction on this issue.

Answer 1

Hi Michael Plenty,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A Forum and for explaining the difficulties you’re experiencing with your child’s Microsoft account.

To clarify, even after you grant permission, the system may still block the child’s login, claiming consent is required. This often occurs if the account was misclassified as a child account or if the birth date is incorrect

The recommended fixes are as below:

1. Check the child’s account birth date through your parent account.
   • If the birth date is wrong, update it using the official Microsoft guide: Change a birth date on a Microsoft account.
2. Re‑grant parental consent:
   • Sign in with your organizer/parent account at family.microsoft.com.
   • Re‑add your child’s account to your family group.
   • When prompted, complete the parental consent process again.
3. Clear cached sessions:
   • Sometimes cached login attempts cause repeated errors. Sign out of all Microsoft accounts on the device, clear browser cookies, and then try signing in again.
4. Verify account ownership:
   • If the child account still cannot log in, ensure you’ve verified both your parent account and the child’s account with updated security information (phone/email).

Note: You cannot bypass parental consent manually or in person. Microsoft requires this to be handled online and fixing the birth date or re‑granting consent is the only way to unlock the account.

If things still don’t work out, feel free to share an update, I’ll be happy to assist further.