How to block websites and searches on your iPhone or your child’s

You can block any websites on an iPhone to make sure your child can only access appropriate content while browsing the web.

You can configure your iPhone to block all adult sites, to filter for language, to restrict search terms, or you can limit it to a list of pre-approved websites.

My son is five and a half, and he already has an iPad and a laptop. For the record, the latter was a hand-me-down, and my wife and I didn’t allow one bit of screen time until he was almost two, and we limited it sharply until he was well past three. But now we encourage periodic use of technology, because technological prowess is a requisite for everyday life.

Fortunately we’re technologically savvy enough to have curated his various devices such that we know he is always safe when using anything that can access the web, a place no kid belongs with unfettered access.

If you want to set up your own iPhone so that it’s safe in the hands of a child or if it’s time for your son or daughter to get their own first iPhone, you too should restrict access to any sites (and searches) that you’d rather not end up in front of young eyes.

How to block websites on an iPhone

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Scroll down to Screen Time and tap the tab.

3. Tap the tab with the white circle and line inset into a red square reading “Content & Privacy Restrictions.”

4. If not already switched, tap the circle at the top right beside the words “Content & Privacy Restrictions” to switch it to the right (a green background will appear around the switch).

5. Tap “Content Restrictions.”

content restrictions

6. Under the “WEB CONTENT” header, tap “Web Content.”

Now you have to choose how you want to limit web access. You can select “Limit Adult Websites,” and the phone will block sites known to be adult in nature (X-rated, e.g.), and you can choose to add in sites that will still be allowed regardless of their nature.

Under the “Limit Adult Websites” setting, you can also add sites that will always be blocked, even if they aren’t recognized as adult

And if you want to take it a step farther, use the “Allowed Websites Only” setting and create a customized list of the only sites that will be allowed

How to block searches and explicit language on an iPhone

If you want to limit the iPhone’s search setting, go back from the “Content Restrictions” page pictured in the steps above and, just below, choose the filters you want for search under the “SIRI” header. You can restrict all search, or just restrict searches with “Explicit Language.”

Finally, go back to the first page of Screen Time pages and make sure to tap “Use a Screen Time Passcode,” or any semi-savvy person who gets the phone in hand will just undo any of the settings he or she doesn’t like.