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How to Block Websites and Apps on iPhone

Answer Summary

iPhone has everything you need built in: Screen Time blocks both websites and apps, with no app to install. It lives in Settings and takes a couple of minutes. The catch isn't setting the block; it's that you can lift it just as fast, so a schedule helps it hold.

Key Takeaways

Screen Time blocks both websites and apps (built into iOS, no download needed).
Block a specific site under Web Content; limit or block apps with App Limits and Downtime.
Turn on “Block at Downtime” so blocks are enforced, not a reminder you can wave away.

On an iPhone you don't need to install anything: the tool is already there. It's called Screen Time, it lives in Settings, and it can block both websites and apps. Here's exactly where to tap.

Step by step

Block websites: Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions (enter Screen Time passcode) → App Store, Media, Web, & Games → Web Content → choose “Limit Adult Websites” (then tap “Add Website” under Never Allow to add a specific site) or “Only Approved Websites”.
Limit or block apps: Settings → Screen Time → turn on App & Website Activity → App Limits → Add Limit → pick categories or individual apps → set time → Add.
Downtime: Settings → Screen Time → App & Website Activity → Downtime → turn on Scheduled, set times; turn on “Block at Downtime” to enforce it.

Good to know

One note: Apple renamed this menu; it's now “App Store, Media, Web, & Games” (older iPhones called it “Content Restrictions”). And for accounts under 18, adult-website filtering may already be on; switching it off can require an adult in your Family Sharing group.

And the one block that never needs a setting: charge the phone outside the bedroom overnight, with a clock on the nightstand instead. It's part of the full guide to blocking websites and apps.

Written by R Blank Founder & CEO of Shield Your Body, author of Empowered, and host of The Healthier Tech Podcast

R Blank is the founder of Shield Your Body and the author of Empowered: A Practical Guide to Protecting Yourself from EMF. He spent years thinking about the devices we keep closest, and what they quietly ask of us in return. Then he put his own phone down, and found clarity, stillness, and the sense of being present in his own life again on the other side. In 2024 he brought Bagby into the Shield Your Body family, to help more people find their way back to the same.

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