iPhone & iMessage Monitoring
Understand your child's digital world — and keep them safe.
New to iPhone safety? Start with the Guide →Joey protects kids across messaging and social platforms by scanning iMessage, Snapchat, Google activity and more, delivering AI alerts for bullying, suspicious contacts, concerning language, personal info sharing, money pressure, emotional distress, and other risks so parents can step in with confidence. Our goal is to prompt parents at the right time to have the best conversations with their kids about a range of online safety topics, protecting them, and our families.
Screen Time vs monitoring: what each one does
Screen Time is great for limits and rules. Monitoring is about spotting concerning activity in messages so you can step in early.
Screen Time (parental controls)
- Sets limits (apps, downtime, content restrictions)
- Helps prevent access to risky content
- Doesn't surface what happened inside messages
Monitoring (Joey)
- Flags concerning patterns in messages and contacts
- Helps you spot issues like risky contacts, bullying language, or oversharing early
- Complements Screen Time, not replaces it
Use Screen Time
Set rules, limit apps, reduce distractions.
Use monitoring
Spot concerning activity in messages and contacts.
Use both
Use both when you want: guardrails + early warning signals.
What Joey Monitors Today
Understand messaging activity with privacy and care
Joey surfaces AI Smart Alerts for bullying, risky contacts, sharing personal information, money and gift requests, emotional distress, concerning language, and drugs or alcohol—giving you the full story so you can respond with care and confidence.
Apple Parental Controls & Family Rules
How Joey partners with Screen Time and Family Sharing so parents get consent-based monitoring, not spyware.
- Screen Time setup checklists with screenshots
- How to explain Joey to your child and set boundaries
Snapchat Monitoring & Risks
How Joey summarizes Snap activity, streak pressure, disappearing chats, and private stories without screenshots.
- Spotting streak pressure, toxic stories, and screenshot drama
- How to coach kids when messages auto-delete
YouTube & Google Activity
How Joey summarizes searches, history, and risky recommendations from YouTube + Google to flag early concerns.
- Weekly digest of top searches & watched topics
- Categories for self-harm, violence, explicit content
Joey Desktop & Weekly Syncs
Step-by-step guide to installing Joey Desktop, syncing iMessages, and keeping backups secure.
- Mac + Windows setup walk-through with screenshots
- Troubleshooting cable + Wi-Fi sync issues
Introducing Joey Desktop
Our secure agent to connect & protect your iPhone's data
Apple-native & Compliant
Runs the same encrypted backup workflow Apple builds into Finder, iTunes, and iMazing - no jailbreaks, spyware, or shared Apple IDs, unlike BrightCanary and other spyware keyloggers.
Install once, run quietly
After the first wired setup, Joey Desktop reminds you when a fresh backup is due. And it works everytime, unlike Bark, which almost never works and gives you hundreds of false alerts to sift through. This is why we built Joey!
Fully offline, fully secure
Joey Desktop lives on your Mac or PC - not in a cloud you can't control. Your family's backup data never goes to our servers or anyone else's.
How it works
Think of Joey Desktop as the family-controlled hub. It turns a secure iPhone backup into the data Joey needs- nothing more, nothing less.
Privacy-first monitoring
Alerts, Not Surveillance
Joey provides alerts and reports, not surveillance. Data is encrypted, and parents can delete accounts at any time.
What Joey Looks For
Joey's safety scanning system assesses your child's digital footprint alerting you to risks, well-being signals, and concerning behaviours facing your child.
Suspicious contacts
Alerts you to dangerous interactions with unknown or suspicious individuals
Drugs and alcohol references
Detects mentions of substances and related discussions.
Obscenity Detection
Flags inappropriate or vulgar laguage.
Emotional distress signals
Trusted contacts
Bullying Detection
Detects harmful or harassing messages and helps keep conversations safe.
Common parent questions about iMessage monitoring
Clear answers that separate parental controls from safe, privacy-first monitoring.
Can parents monitor iMessage on iPhone?
Yes, but not with spyware. Joey uses Apple-native backups via Joey Desktop to analyse message history after each sync and surface safety alerts—no keylogging, no shared Apple IDs, and no hidden apps.
How can I monitor text messages on an iPhone without reading everything?
Joey looks for patterns and risk signals, then sends Smart Alerts and summaries so you can review together. You get awareness and conversation prompts without needing to read every message.
iMessage parental controls vs monitoring: what's the difference?
Parental controls (Apple Screen Time) set limits and restrictions. Monitoring is the awareness layer that helps you spot risks and talk about them. Families use both together.
Explore Joey's core features
Explore these to get the full picture
Smart Alerts
AI-powered safety notifications
How's My Child? Report
Weekly insights and trends
Risky Contacts
Spot unknown numbers and suspicious outreach
Analytics & Social Graph
Trends, contacts, and alert categories
iPhone Safety Guide
Step-by-step: Screen Time basics, Communication Safety, unknown senders, red-flag messages — and when to add Smart Alerts.
Articles
Parent guides, conversations, and explainers