How can I turn off and control texting thru parent controls on a childs phone

Hi keithtams,

Welcome to the Apple Community, where some of us do our best to help each other :)

Wondering if you noticed the "Related Article" link from Apple support above your question on this discussion page.

That article will likely help guide you.

Or

Set up Screen Time for a family member on iPhone:

• If someone who’s currently blocked by the Communication Limit settings tries to call your family member (

by phone or FaceTime), or send them a message, their communication won’t go through.

• If your family member tries to call or send a message to someone who’s currently blocked by the Communication Limit settings, the recipient’s name or number appears in red with an hourglass icon, and the communication won’t go through.
• If the limit applies only to downtime, your family member receives a Time Limit message and can resume communication with the contact when downtime is over.

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iph7f15d92dd/ios

Other helpful articles are available online:

Eg:

Set up Family Sharing on iPhone

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iph223f61318/14.0/ios/14.0

Use Screen Time on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT208982

Turn on Ask To Buy for children on iPhone

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iphec188a85b/ios

Hope this helps you :)

You’ve gotten the correct “parent” answer, and an answer which is intended to assuage parents.

The pragmatic answer is that you cannot, and the kids —if they’re so inclined—will always bypass these efforts and whatever other restrictions parents or educators might try. Always. Kids are wired to communicate, and to form connections, and to learn and to adapt, and your efforts here will, well, fail.

Sure, you might have locked out messages. That’s far from the only option here.

Consider that your efforts will also teach your kids about you and your own beliefs and limits, and how willing you are to extend trust.

And if the kids do choose to deploy those other communications channels, you will be chasing the creativity of not just your kids, but the creativity of many others.

Choose wisely.