Kids grow fast, and ensuring their safety as a parent can be tough at times. Sometimes they don’t want you to know where they are going, and at other times, they don’t even want you to know who they’re talking to. Then, how to ensure that they do not interact with potentially harmful individuals?
Monitoring iPhone text messages and limiting who your child can text on their phone can help keep them away from danger. Monitor text messages on iPhone using the device’s built-in features or with a third-party app that allows you to control their phone remotely.
If you’re wondering how to limit who your child can text on iPhone, we’ve got you covered. This article covers simple and practical methods to save your children from predators and restrict who they can send text messages to. Read on to find out the one best suited to your situation and requirements.
Part 1. Understanding iPhone's Built-in Parental Controls
iPhone users can benefit from numerous built-in parental control features, including:
- Family sharing - remotely manage device use and approve or deny purchases
- Find My - monitor your child’s location
- Game Center Content Restrictions - control private messaging and adding friends in Game Center
However, Screen Time is the most popular among parents as it offers comprehensive parental control over their children’s iPhone. Screen Time offers numerous features and settings to help you control your child’s phone usage and ensure their online safety.
Here are all the parental control features within iPhone’s Screen Time to monitor your child’s texts and calls, and much more.
- Downtime - Schedule time for allowed apps and phone calls
- App Limits - Add limits to different categories of apps or individual apps
- Always Allowed - Select apps that are always allowed (even during downtime)
- Content and Privacy Restrictions - Control installing and deleting apps along with in-app purchases, and enable or disable apps on the phone
- Communication Limits - Control who your child can talk to via Phone, Messages, and FaceTime
- See All Activity - Daily/ weekly reports of most used apps, notifications, and screen time by category
- Screen Time Passcode - Lock Screen Time settings and limits
These built-in iPhone parental controls can help you keep an eye on your children’s iPhone from your device. Use these features to monitor and restrict apps, websites, calls, text messages, and more on your child’s device.
Part 2. Step-by-Step Guide: Limiting Texting Contacts with Screen Time
Now that you know how to track a child's iPhone and restrict websites and apps on their phone, let’s tell you how to limit who your child can text on iPhone. You can set up restrictions in the Communication Limits within Screen Time to disable text messages to unsaved contacts, specific saved contacts, or contacts and groups with at least one contact. Follow this simple guide to monitor text messages on iPhone and restrict contacts.
Step 1: Turn on Screen Time for Your Child
- Go to Settings
- Open Screen Time
- Tap Turn on Screen Time
- Select your child’s name under Family
- Tap ‘This is My Child’s iPhone’
- Now, set a Screen Time Passcode
Step 2: Personalize Communication Limits Settings
- Open Settings
- Go to Screen Time
- Tap your child’s name
- Select Communication Limits
- Personalize settings within ‘During Screen Time’ and ‘During Downtime
Step 3: Prevent Changes in Settings
- Open Settings
- Go to Screen Time
- Open Content & Privacy Restrictions
- Toggle Content & Privacy Restrictions to turn it on
- Tap Contacts
- Select Don’t Allow Changes
Once you have set who your child cannot message through their iPhone and selected Don’t Allow Changes, make sure to test it. Apple’s parental controls are commendable, but trying it for yourself will give you a sense of satisfaction, ensuring that the settings you have changed have been implemented. Try texting or calling a non-approved number during both regular hours and Downtime to see if the call gets through. Thanks to Screen Time settings, the call will not go through and you will not have to worry about your child contacting potentially dangerous people.
Part 3. Beyond Basic Restrictions: Advanced Monitoring with Msafely
If the built-in iPhone text monitoring for parents doesn't quite meet your needs, consider using an app for parents to track text messages and calls for more advanced tracking. Parental control apps are ideal for keeping an eye on your child’s activities on their phone to prevent them from talking to potentially harmful people. You can use these apps to track all the apps on their phone and control their phone remotely, including screen time settings and app blocking.
Msafely is the best phone monitoring software for the iPhone. It gives you access to all apps on your child’s phone, such as:
How to use Msafely
Like many other parents, if you also think that parental control apps are hard to use and hesitate to try one, you’ll be surprised.
Msafely is incredibly easy to navigate, allowing you to monitor your child’s every click on their phone remotely, without any technical knowledge requirement. Here’s how you can use Msafely for your family’s safety:
Step 1. Go to the Msafely website and create a free online account.
Step 2. Select a subscription plan and connect the target device to your Msafely account.
Step 3. Open the Msafely Control Panel and select the features you wish to see or apps you want to monitor.
In the control panel dashboard, you will see all options, from screen time insights to app icons and restriction options to monitor chats and control your child’s contacts remotely.
Part 4. Building Trust: Communicating iPhone Rules with Your Child
While built-in and third-party parental control tools are helpful, they aren’t enough on their own. Building trust is essential. It is important to build trust and teach your child about safe phone usage and scrutinizing the people they talk to if they want to have personal iPhones.
It may be hard initially, but these tips and methods can help you create a conversational and safe atmosphere for your kids:
- Instead of lecturing your kids on their phone usage or scolding them on how they are always on their iPhone, talk to them about their interests and find out what they do on their phone all day. It will help you understand their phone usage and provide a better starting point for a conversation on safe phone use.
- Reinforce that you do not want to control them or deprive them of their independence, but want to ensure their safety. It will allow them to understand your perspective without being defensive.
- Ask them what they think about their mobile phone use and how they think it impacts their routine tasks, including studies. You can discuss a healthy screen time that gives them the opportunity to express their interests without affecting their grades or eyesight because of prolonged screen use.
- Once you decide on a schedule, you can be slightly flexible sometimes, but not every day. For example, if they ask for more screen time on the first day, you can tell them that you will give them one extra hour on the weekend.
- Be transparent about monitoring and let them know that you care about them; it is better than them finding out and feeling betrayed or controlled. You can share your concerns and inform them how it is important to stay updated about each other as a family.
- When you expect your kids to not be glued to their screens all day, it is important for you to model the same behavior. Children will not take you seriously if you do not follow similar rules you set for them. Give them the confidence that you want the best for them.
Part 5. Conclusion
iPhone offers excellent security ensuring no one can access your data, but it also provides amazing parental control options to monitor your child’s activity and restrict it. So, whether you’re looking for answers to ‘How to monitor kids iPhone’ or ‘How to limit who my child can text on iPhone,’ we hope this article has been helpful; use the built-in parental monitoring features, such as Communication Limits in Screen Time, or opt for a third-party parental control app to monitor text messages on iPhone. When looking for third-party parental control apps, Msafely is the best phone monitoring software for iPhone and Android that gives you insights into your child’s phone apps and updates you on their whereabouts. Select the method that suits you better and build trust among the family to encourage your children to share their problems and concerns with you, while maintaining healthy digital boundaries.
Remember, the goal isn’t just to control, but to connect. Technology can sometimes create a gap between parents and children, but with the right tools and conversations, it can also bring you closer. Before setting up any monitoring tools, it’s a good idea to talk openly with your child about why you’re doing it. Let them know it's not about spying, but about keeping them safe. This way, they won’t feel punished or policed, instead, they’ll understand your concern and be more open with you. Parental control is most effective when it goes hand-in-hand with honest dialogue and mutual respect.