Safety guidance for Apple's FaceTime video calling, including who can contact your child and group call risks.
FaceTime is Apple's built-in video and audio calling app for one-to-one or group calls between iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Official age
0+
We recommend
8+
Developer
Apple
Risks
2
FaceTime is Apple's video and audio calling service, built into every iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It supports one-to-one and group video calls of up to 32 participants, screen sharing, SharePlay for watching content together, and FaceTime audio. Because calls are tied to a phone number or Apple ID, anyone who has those details can attempt to ring the child. The 'Silence Unknown Callers' setting reduces unsolicited contact but does not block it, and FaceTime links can also be created and shared in messages, allowing wider invitations into a call.
Children use FaceTime to video call grandparents, see friends after school, and join group calls during homework or while gaming on another device. Older children leave FaceTime running in the background for hours as a kind of co-presence, treating it like sitting in the same room. Many use SharePlay to watch a film or share a screen, and some use it as a quieter alternative to social media DMs. The pull-down notification preview can also display message contents from people in the call, so children sometimes share more on a FaceTime than they would in a written chat.
Silence Unknown Callers
Location: Settings > FaceTime > Silence Unknown Callers
Set to: On
Prevents calls from people not in your child's contacts.
Communication Limits
Location: Settings > Screen Time > Communication Limits
Set to: Contacts Only during allowed time
Restricts who your child can communicate with via FaceTime.
Enable Silence Unknown Callers
Time: 1 minute
Set Communication Limits in Screen Time
Time: 3 minutes
Discuss appropriate video call behaviour
Time: 5 minutes
In immediate danger: call 999. For non-emergency police matters, call 101.
Concerned about a child but it's not an emergency? NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000. Childline for young people 0800 1111.
Myth: FaceTime has no minimum age, so there's nothing to set up until my child is older and using it independently.
Fact: The lack of an age gate is exactly why settings need to be turned on early rather than saved for later — anyone who has your child's phone number or Apple ID can attempt to call them from the first time FaceTime is available on a family device. Silence Unknown Callers and Screen Time Communication Limits are worth enabling before independent use starts, not after.
Myth: Group FaceTime is like a phone call — only the people I actually invited can be on it.
Fact: Anyone can create a shareable FaceTime link and send it through Messages or Mail, and anyone who receives that link can request to join the call. If a link gets passed along inside a friend group chat, someone your child doesn't personally know can end up requesting to join a group of up to 32 people.
Myth: Turning on Silence Unknown Callers is enough on its own to stop unwanted contact.
Fact: Silence Unknown Callers only filters calls from numbers or Apple IDs that aren't already saved in your child's contacts — it does nothing to limit who a saved contact can be, or what happens once a call connects. Pairing it with Screen Time's Communication Limits (restricting contact to an approved list, not just filtering unknown numbers) is what actually narrows who can reach your child, which is why this guide treats both as essential.
FaceTime works well for supervised calls with grandparents and close family at this age. Sit nearby, keep the contact list to saved family members only, and start the call for them yourself rather than leaving the app open to receive incoming requests unsupervised.
This is usually when children start answering or making FaceTime calls on their own. Turn on Silence Unknown Callers and set Screen Time Communication Limits to contacts only before letting them use the app independently.
Group FaceTime and links shared inside friend group chats become more common at this age. Talk about never joining a call from a link sent by someone they don't personally know, and encourage them to check who's actually present on a group call rather than assuming it's just the usual friends.
Controls matter less than habits by now. Worth discussing: the pull to leave FaceTime running in the background for hours as a kind of co-presence, how notification previews can reveal what's being said on a call to anyone glancing at a lock screen, and never accepting a link-based Group FaceTime invite from an unfamiliar Apple ID even if a friend forwarded it.
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