How to make an iPhone safe for a child: block apps and adult websites

There are two different situations hiding behind this question, and they need different tools. In the first, a child borrows your iPhone for a while: a game in the car, a video at the doctor's, homework research on a Sunday. Your banking app, your mail, your photos and the open web are all one swipe away. In the second, the child has their own iPhone, and you want it to be safe every day, not just for half an hour.

This guide covers both, with the steps in iOS, and it's honest about what each tool can't do. We make an app blocker, Tenki, and we'll say where it fits. For the second situation, Apple's own tools are the better choice.

If it's their own iPhone: Screen Time with Family Sharing

Apple's parental controls are the right foundation for a child's own device. You add the child to your Family Sharing group, and you manage their Screen Time from your own iPhone. The settings are protected by a Screen Time passcode that only you know.

In current versions of iOS the path is roughly: Settings → Family → your child's name, then the Screen Time or Apps & Websites section. From there you can set:

• Content restrictions for apps, films and music by age rating, and web filtering with “Limit Adult Websites” or an allow list of sites only.
• Downtime for nights and school hours, and app limits by category or app.
• Ask to Buy, so every download needs your approval.
• Communication limits for who they can call and message.

According to Apple's guide to parental controls, “Limit Adult Websites” is on by default for children under 18 in Family Sharing. Menu names move around between iOS versions, so follow Apple's current page if a step doesn't match.

Two honest notes. First, the passcode is the whole lock: if your child watches you type it, the controls are theirs. Second, time limits are softer than they look. We wrote about why in why Screen Time limits are easy to ignore; the same steps help here.

If it's your iPhone for one app: Guided Access

For the classic case, one game or one video, the best tool is already on your iPhone and costs nothing. Guided Access locks the phone to a single app. The Home gesture, the Control Center and every other app stop working until you end it with your own code.

1. Go to Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access, turn it on and set a passcode that's different from your phone's.
2. Open the app your child may use.
3. Triple-click the side button and tap Start. You can also turn off touch in parts of the screen, for example an in-app shop button.
4. To end it, triple-click again and enter the code.

Its limit is its strength: it's one app. The moment a child needs a second app, or the web, you're back to handing over an open phone.

If it's your iPhone for a few apps and the web: a blocking session

This is the gap between the two. A drawing app, a learning app and the browser for homework, but not your mail, your messages, your banking or social media. An app blocker that uses Apple's Screen Time system can close everything else for the length of a session.

The setup that holds best:

1. Allow only, don't block. Instead of listing everything a child shouldn't open, list what they may open. Everything else, including apps you install later, stays shut.
2. Filter adult websites. Use Apple's automatic web content filter for the session. If they only need two or three sites, allow only those sites instead.
3. Keep the code or tag yourself. If the session can be ended with a tap in the app, it will be. Choose a QR code or an NFC tag as the only way to end it, and keep the code in your pocket, not on the table.
4. Close the side doors. Turn on a strict mode that blocks the App Store and stops apps from being deleted. Turn off breaks and emergency unblocks for this profile.
5. Silence notifications. Blocking an app doesn't necessarily stop its notifications from appearing. Turn on a Focus such as Do Not Disturb before you hand the phone over, so message previews don't pop up.

What Apple's adult-website filter does, and doesn't

Whether you switch it on through Screen Time or through an app that uses Apple's system, the filter is the same: Apple's own list of adult websites. A few things are worth knowing.

• It works across browsers on iPhone. Safari, Chrome and Firefox on iPhone all use Apple's web engine, so the filter reaches them too. A browser with its own engine, which is possible in the EU, may not follow it.
• It isn't exhaustive. An automatic list misses some sites and occasionally blocks a harmless one. You can add extra sites to block by hand.
• It filters websites, not apps. It does nothing about what appears inside social media apps, video apps or games. For those, the answer is not to allow the app during the session.
• It's not a conversation. Children find things by accident and on friends' phones. A filter buys time and makes accidents rarer. Talking about what they might see does the rest.

Which tool for which job

The honest limits

No setting makes a phone safe on its own. A determined teenager with their own device, time and a search engine will find ways around most restrictions, and some of those ways are worse than the thing you blocked. The tools above work best for younger children, for short stretches, and alongside rules you've talked through.

Be clear about what a blocker is for, too. An app like Tenki is designed for the person who holds the phone, which here is you, lending it out. It isn't a parental-control app, and it isn't meant to manage a child's own iPhone from a distance. For that, Family Sharing is the tool, and a good blocker complements it rather than replacing it.

How it works in Tenki

In Tenki you'd make a profile called, say, “Kids”. Under apps, turn on Allow Only Selected Apps and pick the few they may use. Under websites, turn on Block Adult Websites, which applies Apple's adult-content filter while the session runs; you can still add sites of your own. Choose Until you end it and a QR code or NFC tag as the way to end, turn on Strict mode, and switch off breaks and the emergency unblock for this profile. When the phone comes back, scan your code and everything is as it was.

The filter belongs to the session: it's on while the session runs and off when it ends. If you want adult websites filtered on your iPhone all the time, switch on “Limit Adult Websites” in Screen Time itself. And if you'd like a code that's not in anyone's pocket, our guide to QR code app blockers explains how to set one up. The QR code generator is free, whether you use Tenki or not.