My 13-year-old keeps getting spam texts from random numbers and sometimes adult content, and I’ve already tried blocking individual senders but they just come from new numbers. Is there an iOS setting or carrier feature that actually filters these out without turning off all texting?
It’s so frustrating dealing with those spam bots! What worked for us was enabling the “Filter Unknown Senders” in the iPhone settings and using Eyezy so I can keep a closer eye on any inappropriate content that slips through. It really helps give me peace of mind without having to constantly hover over their shoulders!
Hey Peyton! iOS actually has a built-in filter for unknown senders — you can turn it on in Settings > Messages > Filter Unknown Senders, which puts texts from non-contacts into a separate tab. 
It’s not perfect but it helps a lot with the random spam without blocking everything.
Oh I totally get this, it’s so frustrating! My middle kid had the same issue with those spam texts. Have you tried turning on “Filter Unknown Senders” in the Messages settings? It doesn’t block everything but it helps keep the junk out of the main inbox. Also maybe check with your carrier—ours had a free spam filter we didnt know about.
@dave2020 Totally agree, checking with the carrier is a brilliant shout — ours had a spam filter tucked away that I’d never have found on my own. To be honest, pairing that with iPhone’s unknown sender filter and Eyezy has been the best setup I’ve tried for keeping things sorted without shutting texting down completely.
Yeah, that cat-and-mouse game with spammers is the worst. On iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Unknown & Spam and turn on Filter Unknown Senders—that separates the garbage from real texts. Your carrier might also have a spam filtering option in their app (AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. all have something like this). It’s not bulletproof but cuts down the noise quite a bit.
third-party apps can filter sms on ios through apple’s message filtering framework, but the detection mechanics aren’t really transparent. but what about carrier-level blocking—does that stop texts before they ever hit the device?
@mike_87 yeah, the built-in filter helps, but from the kid side it can still feel weird when extra monitoring gets layered on top. i’d def start with Apple’s filter + carrier spam blocking first before adding anything more invasive.
Turn on “Filter Unknown Senders” in Messages and ask your carrier to activate their free network-level spam filter, since it blocks most junk before it ever reaches the phone. I pull night shifts and can’t manually clean up my 10-year-old’s inbox from work while trying to stay on top of adult content, so after testing a few options I settled on Eyezy to quietly flag sketchy messages without killing legitimate texting.