Abstract: A video-phone device which transmits and receives sharable data to and from video-phones belonging to other parties is provided with a communication control means which, upon receiving a reception request or a transmission request for shareable data, assesses whether or not the reception request or the transmission request satisfies predetermined conditions, specifically, whether or not the other party has been stored in a recoding unit as a party to which transmission/reception of sharable data is permitted, and receives sharable data from the other party or transmits sharable data to the other party only when the conditions are satisfied. Thus the video-phone can automatically permit only reception of sharable data from trusted parties on the other end of a communication line, or transmission of sharable data to trusted parties on the other end of a communication line.