How to Block Websites on a Child’s iPhone or iPad

You can restrict websites with Apple’s parental controls, but the steps depend on which Screen Time experience your family uses. The updated version 27 experience has website lists and Ask to Browse. The earlier version 26 experience uses Web Content restrictions and a list for specific blocked addresses.

First decide whether you want to block one website or allow only a small set of approved sites. Those choices create different amounts of review work for the parent.

Decide what a successful restriction should do

Write the intended result in one sentence. For example: “This entertainment website should be unavailable, while the school portal and its sign-in page should still open.”

That is easier to verify than “make the browser safe.” A website restriction is a rule about access to web addresses. It is not automatically a rule about a service’s separate app, a video game console, or every account used by the child.

Also identify the actual browsing route. Does the child open Safari, Chrome, a link from Messages, or a page embedded in a school app? List the routes they normally use so that you can check the relevant ones without assuming they all behave alike.

For the updated Apple family controls

Apple’s Ask to Browse documentation describes the version 27 experience. It requires the family setup and updated parental controls, and applies to Safari and other supported browser apps. It does not promise coverage of every possible browser.

On the managing adult’s iPhone or iPad, open Settings, choose Family, and select the child. Open Apps & Websites.

Before relying on requests, make sure the family organizer or parent/guardian is in the child’s contacts. Apple lists this as a requirement for sending requests to the adult.

From there, there are two useful starting points:

Block a website that is already allowed. Select that site in the allowed list, choose Block Website, and confirm the change. Approval is not permanent: an adult can change the decision later.

Require approval for new sites. In Restrictions, find website Filtering and choose Approved Websites Only. That enables the approval-based browsing approach. Apple also offers Limit Adult Websites, which serves a different purpose from maintaining a small approved list.

If you are moving from older controls, complete the family upgrade process first. Do not search the old Web Content menu for a newer option that has not been enabled for your family.

For the version 26 Screen Time experience

Apple’s version-specific iPhone guide gives the earlier route:

1. Open Screen Time in Settings and select the child where appropriate.
2. Turn on Content & Privacy Restrictions.
3. Open App Store, Media, Web, & Games, then Web Content.
4. Choose Limit Adult Websites.
5. Under Never Allow, add the address you want to restrict.

This is the legacy version 26 route. A newer family setup may use different menus; combine neither set of labels into one imagined path.

Be deliberate about the address you enter. A service can use several hostnames for its main site, sign-in, videos, or help pages. Start with the address actually involved in the problem. Do not assume that adding one address proves coverage of every related domain.

Make school exceptions specific

A school task may begin on one website and then open an identity provider, document editor, or video page. If only the starting page is allowed, the child may get partway through the task and then encounter another block.

Ask the child or school to identify the required link. Review the destination rather than approving an entire entertainment service simply because one assignment contains a link to it.

With Ask to Browse, an approved site remains available unless an adult blocks it later. Treat an approval as a continuing decision, not just permission for the next few minutes. A temporary school exception should therefore include a review date in the family’s own notes.

You do not need to turn that note into a complicated monitoring system. A simple entry can say: “Allowed for history project; review when the project ends.”

Run a website restriction and exception test

The following is a proposed family check, not a report of device testing performed for this article.

Use benign pages for testing. There is no need to search for explicit material to verify that the family knows how an approval request works.

If your child uses Chrome with a Google account

Google also documents website controls for a child signed in to Chrome with a Family Link-managed account. These are separate from Apple’s settings.

Google’s iPhone and iPad instructions explicitly limit that scope: leaving the supervised Chrome sign-in or using another browser can mean the Chrome settings no longer apply. This is why a browser-account filter should not be described as a complete iPhone restriction.

If both Apple and Google controls are present, record which one displayed the block. Otherwise, an adult may repeatedly change the wrong list while the other control still prevents access.

What to do when the rule seems too broad

An educational page being blocked does not mean that all filtering must be removed. Review the page and its necessary supporting addresses, then choose a narrow exception when appropriate.

Likewise, one successfully blocked page does not prove that an app version of the service is restricted. App access, web access, content filtering, and time limits are separate checks.

If the concern is a whole category of material rather than a particular address, use the content-filter coverage guide. If the concern is only how long the child browses, use the relevant time settings instead of building a growing list of unrelated blocked sites.

A workable website rule has a clear purpose, an understood scope, and a way to request a legitimate exception.