Age-appropriate phone safety education for children and teens, covering scam calls, text scams, and safe phone habits.
Children start receiving scam calls and texts younger than most parents expect — often as soon as they get a phone number, which for many kids today is when they receive their first smartphone (average age: 10-11 years old in the US, according to research by the American Psychological Association). The phone numbers assigned to new accounts are frequently recycled from previous subscribers, which means a child's new number may already be in scammers' databases from the previous owner. Additionally, many children share their phone numbers on gaming platforms (Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft through third-party Discord servers), social media platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram), and online marketplaces (selling virtual items) where numbers can be harvested by data brokers and scam operations.
The scam types targeting children are somewhat different from those targeting adults. Gaming-platform scams are particularly prevalent: callers or texters claim to offer free Robux (the in-game currency for Roblox), free V-Bucks (Fortnite), rare skins, or other in-game items — but require the child to provide their account login, click a link to a phishing site, or reveal a parent's credit card number to "process the free items." The FTC reports that children are particularly susceptible to these offers because they're in a context — gaming — where promotional offers and limited-time deals are common and expected. A child who receives a Discord message offering 10,000 free Robux is encountering a scam that's designed to fit precisely within their existing expectation of how gaming platforms offer promotional content.
Tech support scams have evolved to target children specifically through gaming platforms. A scammer impersonating a Roblox or Fortnite moderator or administrator contacts a child claiming their account has been flagged for a violation and will be permanently banned unless they verify their account by providing their login credentials. The fear of losing access to a game that represents significant social connection — friend groups, in-game achievements, time invested — is a powerful motivator for a child to comply immediately without consulting a parent. This is the same fear-and-urgency mechanism used against adults, adapted to a child's specific emotional investments.
Age-appropriate scam education should start around age 8-9, when most children begin using devices with communication features, and should be refreshed annually as children's online environments change. The core concepts to teach: (1) If someone offers you something valuable for free but asks for anything in return — your password, your parent's credit card number, personal information, clicking a link — it's a scam. No legitimate platform gives away Robux, V-Bucks, or in-game items in exchange for account credentials or payment information. Real promotional offers from legitimate platforms appear inside the official game or app, not through texts, DMs, or phone calls. (2) Real company representatives, game moderators, and official support staff never contact you to say your account is in trouble — you contact them through the game's official support system if there's a problem.
For middle school-aged children (10-13), expand the conversation to include social media scams. Fake accounts impersonating their favorite influencers or YouTubers that offer giveaways in exchange for personal information, phone numbers, or reposting content are common. Romance scams targeting preteens and teenagers through gaming platforms and Discord are a documented and growing problem — adults posing as peers build relationships over time before making requests for money, explicit photos (sextortion), or personal information. Teach children that they cannot verify the true identity of anyone they've met only online, regardless of how well they seem to know the person. This is not about paranoia — it's about the specific vulnerability of online-only relationships where identity verification is impossible.
Interactive learning is more effective than lectures for children. The Google and iKeepSafe Be Internet Awesome curriculum (beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com) includes the Interland game — a free, browser-based game that teaches internet safety concepts including recognizing scams and phishing through gameplay rather than lectures. Common Sense Media (commonsensemedia.org) provides age-appropriate digital literacy curricula that include phone and messaging safety. The FTC's "Pass It On" materials include a version designed for younger audiences. For older teens, the AARP's Fraud Watch Network has resources designed for young adults and offers programs where teens teach older community members about scam recognition — a teaching exercise that deepens the student's own understanding while building intergenerational connections.
Most smartphone platforms offer parental control features that include call and text filtering. For iOS with Screen Time (Settings → Screen Time → Communication Limits): you can specify which contacts your child can communicate with during "Screen Time" hours (all contacts you've approved) and during "Downtime" (a more restricted list). iOS Screen Time can restrict calls to only contacts during designated hours — effectively blocking calls from unknown numbers during school hours while allowing family contacts through. The "Communication Safety" feature in iOS 16+ extends these controls to Messages, flagging potentially sensitive content.
Google Family Link (families.google.com/familylink) provides parental controls for Android devices assigned to children's Google accounts. Family Link allows parents to manage app permissions, screen time, and communication settings from a parent's device. For call blocking specifically on Android, the Google Family Link controls combined with the phone's built-in spam filter (Google Phone app → Settings → Caller ID & spam → Filter spam calls) provide overlapping protection. Some carriers offer family plan controls that include the ability to block unknown number calls on child lines — check with your carrier's family plan settings.
Third-party apps provide additional control layers. Bark (bark.us, $14/month) monitors texts, email, and social media on children's devices for signs of cyberbullying, contact from strangers, and scam-related content, sending parents alerts without providing full message surveillance. Bark is particularly effective at the middle school and high school level where complete message monitoring would be age-inappropriately invasive but some oversight is warranted. Circle (meetcircle.com) provides network-level content filtering for home WiFi that can include filtering of certain types of online communication. OurPact (ourpact.com) allows scheduling of device access and contact approval at the app and call level. The appropriate level of technical control depends on the child's age, maturity, and specific risk environment — a 10-year-old who is active on gaming platforms needs different controls than a 16-year-old with a strong foundational understanding of online safety.
Text-based scams targeting children have exploded in volume since 2020, primarily driven by smishing (SMS phishing) campaigns that use automated systems to send millions of texts simultaneously to random or harvested numbers. The most common smishing texts targeting younger demographics include: fake gift card giveaways ("You've been selected to receive a $1,000 Target gift card — click here to claim"), fake job offers ("Make $500/week from home — text YES to apply"), fake influencer promotions ("[Influencer name] is giving away signed merchandise to their top followers — click this link"), and fake package delivery notifications ("Your USPS package is on hold — click to reschedule delivery").
Teach children to never click links in text messages from unknown numbers — the visual link in a text can lead to a phishing site that looks identical to a real site (Target.com, USPS.com, TikTok.com) but is actually a credential-harvesting page. Mobile browsers make it harder to see the actual URL before clicking because the full address is often truncated. Even if a text appears to come from a recognizable name or brand, the number is often spoofed or belongs to a compromised account — the appearance of legitimacy cannot be verified from the message itself. Any link that needs to be clicked should be navigated to directly in the browser (typing the website address) rather than through the text link.
For iPhone: Settings → Messages → Filter Unknown Senders puts texts from numbers not in contacts into a separate tab ("Unknown Senders") and disables link previews in those messages — meaning links appear as plain text rather than tappable links, adding friction that reduces accidental clicking. For Android: Messages app → Settings → Spam protection → Enable spam protection turns on Google's automated smishing detection. Show children how to use these features themselves, and explain the reasoning — not just "do this" but "this makes links in texts from people you don't know not clickable so you don't accidentally click a scam link." Understanding the why makes them more likely to maintain the practice independently as they move between devices and platforms over time.
Family phone safety rules are most effective when they're created collaboratively with children rather than imposed unilaterally — children who understand the reasoning behind rules are more likely to follow them when parents aren't present. A productive approach: "I've been reading about phone scams that specifically target kids, and I want us to create some rules together so you're protected without feeling like I'm restricting you. What do you think we should do if someone texts you offering free Robux?" Their answer will tell you what they already know and where the gaps are. Build the rules from that starting point.
Core family phone safety rules appropriate for children 10-16: (1) Tell a parent immediately if any stranger texts, calls, or messages with an offer, request for information, or claim that feels weird or too good to be true. No judgment for what prompted the contact — just information sharing. (2) Never share your full name, school name, home address, parent's names, or financial information with anyone you only know online, no matter how well you think you know them. (3) If anyone online claims to be your friend and then asks for money, a gift card, or personal photos, that's a scam — tell a parent immediately. (4) If any app, game, or website asks for your parents' credit card number and it wasn't clearly set up in advance, it needs parent approval first. (5) The family code word: if anyone calls claiming a family emergency, they must say the family code word (choose one together) for it to be taken seriously without calling a parent to verify.
Regular check-ins on the rules' effectiveness are more useful than setting the rules once and assuming they're being followed. Monthly or quarterly conversations — "Have you gotten any weird texts or messages lately? What did you do?" — normalize reporting and give you current information about what your child is encountering. A child who knows these conversations happen regularly and who trusts they won't be judged will share information about suspicious contacts rather than handling them alone. The goal is for children to develop their own scam recognition skills and habits, using the family safety rules as training wheels that eventually become internalized judgment rather than external restrictions.
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