You can set it up so that only certain ratings can challenge you. If your friends fall outside of those ratings, that setting would allow them to still challenge you.
It may also allow challenges from friends if you have the unavailable setting on, but I'm not sure on that.
I just noticed this "My friends can challenge me no matter what" button under "Daily Chess" in my profile.
What does "no matter what" mean?
It's turned off - but friends have been challenging me to games with no problem up to now, so I'm worried about the "no matter what" designation.
I tried using "help" and Googled it, but didn't find an explanation.