I’ll never forget when my 10-year-old niece sent me her first text. It was a simple “Hi,” but that word also signaled the start of a new chapter for her — and a whole new set of safety considerations for her parents. How would we prevent her from texting strangers? What would happen if she were added to a group chat and someone started harassing her?
This is where a reliable app for parents to monitor text messages is essential. Apple’s parental controls are impressive, but they don’t give you the ability to actually see what your child is texting. Other parental monitoring apps come up short on iPhone, but BrightCanary was specifically designed for Apple devices — so it actually works.
Here’s what parents and family members should know about BrightCanary text monitoring, how to set it up, and tips to get the most of the app.
When parents think about online safety, they often forget about the risks associated with text messaging. Texting seems like a private form of one-to-one communication, but it really isn’t. Texts can expose kids to risks such as cyberbullying, predators, and scams. Even if your child only texts people in their immediate friend group, there’s a chance that they could be added to a group chat with unfamiliar people in it. Plus, anything they send in a text thread can be screenshotted, saved, and shared with others.
Text message monitoring is the equivalent of asking your child about the people they spend time with at school. Who are they talking to? What do they talk about? Does anyone ever make them feel uncomfortable? Monitoring allows you to stay involved and guide your child through these interactions, especially as their social circle expands.
You can monitor texts in a few different ways, like spot-checking your child’s phone, scheduling weekly check-ins, or using a third-party monitoring app like BrightCanary. Combining methods generally works best because communication is really key at this point in your child’s digital literacy education — you want to give them the space they need to explore different social dynamics in healthy ways, while also staying on top of anything potentially concerning.
BrightCanary is a powerful app because it allows you to monitor your child’s texts without constantly looking over their shoulder. You’ll be able to view summaries of what they’re texting, so you don’t have to read every individual message. If you have questions about what you’re seeing, you can ask an AI chatbot for more details. And if you feel the need to dig deeper into a conversation, you can read full text threads — even deleted messages.
Here’s how to set up BrightCanary text monitoring.
After downloading BrightCanary on your iPhone or iPad, go ahead and create your child’s profile and add the accounts you want to monitor. To set up text message monitoring, you’ll need the following:
If your child doesn’t have an Apple ID, it’s pretty easy to set one up. We recommend doing this through Apple Family Sharing. Apple has a handy guide on how to create an account for your child.
Once that’s set up, you’ll enter their Apple ID email and password in the BrightCanary app. A sign-in attempt will prompt on your child’s device, and you might also be asked to enter a two-factor authentication code or your child’s device passcode. This extra information helps authenticate your child’s account, and it’s part of what we have to provide to Apple.
Once BrightCanary shows you that the device is connected, you’re good to go. It may take several hours to begin receiving texts while your child’s messages are processed.
BrightCanary updates with any new text messages every few hours. Don’t worry, we’re working on an option for real-time processing so you can get updates faster. For now, the app will look for new text messages several times throughout the day.
One way to test this out is to send your child a text message. When BrightCanary updates, you should see the text populate in the app. And if you run into any issues, just tap the support button in the app.
BrightCanary uses advanced AI technology designed for parents. The app’s AI is like a hall monitor, keeping track of your child’s online activity — including texts, searches, and social media — and flagging anything concerning.
Specifically, the app’s text message monitoring feature enables parents to:
Other child safety apps don’t monitor text messages on iPhone, and if they do, you only have limited insight into what your child is texting. Sometimes, you need to view the full thread — not only who your child is messaging, but also whether they’re talking about anything that would raise a red flag. With BrightCanary, you have that option.
AI chatbots offer an anonymous, judgment-free way to ask questions and get more information about important topics. The BrightCanary app’s AI, Ask the Canary, is seamlessly integrated into the text monitoring experience. When you view text message summaries, you can also use Ask the Canary to get more information about what your child is discussing — without scrolling through their entire text thread.
For example, you might view a text message summary of your child’s conversation with their best friends. The summary says they’re talking about something called sigma, but you’re not sure what that is — so you use Ask the Canary for more details. All of that can happen in just a few taps in the BrightCanary app.
Ask the Canary is also helpful for general questions about digital parenting. You can access the chatbot in the app and ask your toughest digital parenting questions, like how to handle your child’s first bully or tips on talking to your child about online safety.
It’s normal for parents to feel a little worried about how their child will respond to text message monitoring. You might feel like you trust your child, but you also want to make sure they’re staying safe. It’s important to stay involved for the same reason that you wouldn’t just drop your child off in the middle of a crowded city without any guidance — you want to guide and protect them, while also helping them learn how to navigate any challenges that arise.
That’s why we recommend approaching your child with their safety in mind. Explain how BrightCanary works and why you want to use it. If you’ve already given them a device and they’ve been texting independently without any restrictions, you can always go back and add rules. Some of our parents make BrightCanary a condition for device use — if the child wants their own phone, they also need to agree to parental monitoring.
Set your rules, explain how you’ll work together on this, and put the rules in writing in a digital device contract.
The best app for parents to monitor text messages gives you flexibility — the ability to give your child their independence by only looking at concerning content, and the ability to look at more detailed conversations if the need pops up. After all, there’s no one way to parent in the digital age, and every family has different needs. BrightCanary gives parents a comprehensive solution for iPhone text message monitoring, and it happens all on your phone. Download BrightCanary on the App Store today and start your free trial.
