Note:You also have the option to turn on downtime on demand for a family member, either directly on their device, or through Family Sharing on your device (if you’ve set up Family Sharing).

Communication Limits on a Family Members Device

If you want certain phone calls, FaceTime calls, and messages to be blocked, you can limit both incoming and outgoing communication on your family member’s device with specific contacts, either at all times or during certain periods.

• First you’ll want to turn on Contacts in iCloud on your family member’s device. To do this go to Settings > Choose your child’s name > iCloud, then turn Contacts on.

  Note: You are only able to manage your family member’s communication if they’re using Contacts in iCloud.

• On your family member’s device, go to Settings > Screen Time.

• If you haven’t turned Screen Time on already, click on Turn On Screen Time, then hit Continue, and click This is My Child’s iPhone.

• Then click on Communication Limits, then you will have the following options:

  • Limit communication at any time: Click During Screen Time, then choose:

    • Contacts Only

    • Contacts & Groups with at Least One Contact

    • Everyone

  • Limit communication during downtime: Select During Downtime. The option you chose for During Screen Time will already be set here. If you’d like, you can alter this setting to Specific Contacts.

    If you chose Specific Contacts, then you can either click on Choose From My Contacts or Add New Contact if there are certain people you want to allow communication with during downtime.

  • Manage a child’s contacts: While using Family Sharing, you have the options to view, edit, add, or delete your child’s contacts. Click on Manage [child’s name] Contacts.

    If your family member/child has contacts in iCloud already, they will receive a notification on their device asking if they want to approve the request to manage them. If they don’t have contacts, they don’t get a notification and you can immediately add contacts.

    When you choose the option to manage your child’s contacts, a new row will appear beneath Manage [child’s name] Contacts that will show how many contacts your child has. Click on this row to view and edit the contacts at your convenience.

  • Allow contact editing: Click on Allow Contact Editing if you want to turn this option off. This will prevent your child from editing their contacts.

    The ability to turn off contact editing and limit communication to Contacts Only at your convenience is a great way to manage and oversee who your child can communicate with and when they can be contacted.

When these communication limit settings are on, someone who you’ve chosen to block from your child’s communication won’t be able to contact them. If the blocked contact tries to call your child/family member, either by FaceTime, phone call, or text message, their communication won’t go through.

On the other hand if your child or family member attempts to FaceTime, phone call or text message someone who’s currently blocked by the Communication Limit settings you configured, the blocked recipients name or number will appear in red with an hourglass icon, and the communication won’t go through. If you set the limit for downtime only, your family member will receive a Time Limit message and can continue their communication with the contact once downtime is over.

If you would like to allow your child/family member to communicate with contacts you chose to block with the Communication Limit settings, you can simply unblock those contacts by changing the communication limit settings with the step described in the section above.

Turn Communication Safety On/Off for a Family Members Device

You can also limit inappropriate content on your child/family members device by turning on communication safety in Screen Time. When communication safety is on, nudity in photos will be detected in the Messages app before the photos are sent or received by your child, and resources will be provided to help your child handle the situation (This feature is only available for software versions iOS 15.2 or later; and are not available in all countries or regions). Apple will not have access to these photos nor will anyone else. To turn communication safety on:

• In your child/family member’s device, navigate to Settings > Screen Time.

• If Screen Time is not already turned on, click on Turn On Screen Time > Continue, then click on This is My Child’s iPhone.

• Click on Communication Safety, then turn on Check for Sensitive Photos.

App Limits on a Family Members Device