Can’t turn off “Ask a Parent or Guardian to Approve iMessage?”

iOS 26.1 - iPhone 16

Whenever I get a text from an “unsaved” number (including people I’ve messaged before), it says that parent approval is required to view the message. My Ask to Buy is turned off, I don’t have many parental controls on the device.

However, I also can’t even send “Ask to approve”, because it says iMessage “needs to be enabled” - I’ve checked in my settings, it is. Because of this problem I’ve missed important texts such as ones from my bank, and it’s frustrating because I have found zero information on how to disable this.