Receiving children’s messages

Question

Level 1

4 points

Receiving children’s messages

My two children (minors) each have their own child iCloud accounts on their iPhones SE 2020 with active cellular accounts. I am having trouble setting up their message settings so that I can also receive any messages they get. With both of their phones, I’ve signed into their message settings on their phones with my iCloud account, and then selected their phone numbers to receive and send messages. I remained signed into my iCloud account in my messages, and selected to receive with both of their phone numbers and send only with my phone number. It doesn’t work. I then tried using the forward feature on on of their phones while sharing an iCloud account, and while that does forward me messages that one child receives, I obviously can’t simultaneously share iCloud accounts with both children, so this method isn’t very practical. What am I doing wrong? Is them having children icloud accounts part of the issue?

All three of us are using iPhone SE 2020 all with iOS 15.2; both kids have cellular account on their phones.

iPhone SE

Posted on Dec 19, 2021 9:16 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Dec 20, 2021 12:43 PM in response to Pcarc

You're trying to use iMessages in a way it's not been designed to be used. You can only be signed into one iMessage account at a time. It's not designed to be used to monitor someone else's messages. You aren't going to be able to do what you want.

Reply

Answer 2

ryane77

Community Specialist

Dec 20, 2021 10:33 AM in response to Pcarc

Hi Pcarc,

Thanks for the post in Apple Support Communities. As we understand it, you want to know how you can receive messages sent to your children's iOS devices. Is that right? We're happy to see if we can share some information for this.

To clarify, are you saying you're signed in to the same Apple ID on all three devices under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive? Generally speaking, if you're sharing an Apple ID, you would see the same iMessages on all devices, but you may not see all SMS/text messages since those are sent to the specific phone number: Add or remove your phone number in Messages or FaceTime

We hope this is helpful. Let us know if you have any questions. Take care.

Reply

Answer 3

KiltedTim

Level 10

226,008 points

Dec 20, 2021 12:41 PM in response to Pcarc

Pcarc wrote:

My two children (minors) each have their own child iCloud accounts on their iPhones SE 2020 with active cellular accounts. I am having trouble setting up their message settings so that I can also receive any messages they get.

You can't do that.

Reply

Answer 4

Pcarc Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 21, 2021 2:25 AM in response to KiltedTim

Alright, thanks.

Reply

Answer 5

Pcarc Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 20, 2021 12:39 PM in response to ryane77

Hello. I’ve tried it both ways: being signed into the same Apple ID on my own device as well as my child’s, and being signed into our own individual Apple IDs on all three devices. In the first example, I received the same iMessages as my child, but this method prevents me from simultaneously receiving iMessages directed to both of my children as I can only be logged in to one child’s Apple ID at a time. in the second example, I included my email in the “send and receive” section of Messages of both children’s devices with them logged into their own respective Apple IDs but I received none of the iMessages sent to them. I wasn’t able to include my mobile number in “send and receive” in their Message apps because a pop up said that number was already associated with another account.

Thanks.

Reply

Answer 6

Pcarc Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 21, 2021 8:38 PM in response to KiltedTim

Ok, thanks.

Reply

Receiving children’s messages

Similar questions