How to send a message to a child

If your church has given you Safe Messaging permission, messaging a child works just like any other conversation in the app. The difference is what happens after you press send: the message is held, and it goes nowhere until the child’s parent or guardian has read it and approved it.

Sending a message

1. Open the app and tap Chat.
2. Find the child in your Chat list. If your list is long, use the search at the top. Under their name you will see the group your conversation runs through, for example the youth group or a children’s group.
3. Open the conversation. You will see a banner reminding you that messages you send need parent or guardian approval.
4. Type your message and send it as usual.

What happens next

1. Your message is held. The child does not see it.
2. Their parent or guardian is notified, by email and by a notification in the app, and reads it in full along with the last few messages of the conversation. See What a parent sees, and how they approve a message.
3. If they approve it, it is delivered and the child sees it in their own conversation with you.
4. If they reject it, or if nobody responds within the time your church has set, it is not delivered and you are told. The message stays in the conversation, shown differently, with the reason underneath.

Where a child has more than one guardian, all of them are notified and whichever one acts first decides.

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Good to know

• Write it as though a parent is reading it, because one is. That is not a constraint on good practice, it is good practice.
• Keep it to the small things: an exam, a birthday, a match, a word of encouragement, an invitation to the next event. Those are the messages parents are glad to approve.
• Messages are text only. There is no image or file sharing.
• You cannot reach children through a group chat. Children are never in them, so a group message will not reach the children in that group. Message them individually, or send a mailing to the group and let each copy go for approval.
• There is a weekly limit on how many messages you can send one child. If you reach it, that is your church’s setting rather than a fault, and it counts what you sent rather than what was delivered. See How to choose your Safe Messaging settings.
• If a message is rejected you are told it was not delivered, but not why. A guardian’s reason goes to your Safeguarding Lead rather than to you, and that is deliberate.
• Your church’s Safeguarding Lead can see every message you send. That is by design, and it protects you as much as it protects the child. See How to review Safe Messages.
• If you cannot find a child in your Chat list at all, see Why can’t I send a message to this child?