Can I block a website on Safari?

Want to block websites in the Safari browser on your iPhone? Restricting the websites from accessing is possible whether you want to block websites on a shared device or for someone who you don’t want to access it, this guide will help you out. To block a website in the Safari browser for iPhone, follow this guide.

Fortunately, the iOS 13 has a new feature called Screen Time that allows you to get control over your iPhone and iPad. Screen Time lets you keep an eye on phone usage as well as comes with a bunch of parental control tools to restrict the content that children and other family members are able to access easily. One of the tools in it can actually block the websites on Safari.

The ability to block particular websites in Safari might come in handy, especially if you don’t want your kids to access the content that’s not allowed or keep them away from social media and other websites.

Note: You need to make sure your iPhone is running iOS 13 or later versions to access the Screen Time features. Before you go ahead with the guide, update your iPhone or iPad if you haven’t.

Here are the steps to block websites in Safari browser

1. Launch the Settings app from the home screen and swipe to bottom to get find Screen Time.
2. Tap the Screen Time and at the bottom, choose Content & Privacy Restrictions.
3. Turn on the slider for Content & Privacy Restrictions if you haven’t. Under Content & Privacy Restrictions, tap on Content Restrictions.
4. Tap on Web Content.
5. Choose Limit Adult Websites under Web Content to restrict adult websites automatically. Or you can add websites manually if you would like to block any particular website. Tap Add Website at the bottom under Never Allow and type the URL that you want to block.
6. Tap Done and the website you ender is now blocked.

This way you can block certain websites in Safari on your iPhone or iPad using the Screen Time feature. You can also check out more Screen Time features by using it. If you like this Safari guide, here are the top 5 cool browsing tricks you can do on the Safari browser. Don’t forget to check out more Safari Guides for your iPhone as well as Mac.

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Easy ways to block a website in Safari

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This wikiHow teaches you how to prevent Safari from accessing a specific site on both iPhone and Mac platforms. You can change this setting from within the Restrictions menu on an iPhone, but you'll need to edit the hosts file on Mac if you want to block a site on desktop.

1. 

   1

   Open your iPhone's Settings

   
   . Tap the grey app with gears on it to do so. You'll likely find Settings on the Home Screen.

2. 

   2

   Scroll down and tap

   
   General. It's at the top of the third main group of options near the top of the Settings page.

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3. 

   3

   Scroll down and tap Restrictions. It's in the middle of the page.

4. 

   4

   Enter your Restrictions passcode. This is the code you set when you turned on Restrictions—not necessarily the same as your iPhone's regular passcode.

   • If you haven't yet turned on Restrictions, instead tap Enable Restrictions and then enter your preferred passcode twice.

5. 

   5

   Scroll down to the "ALLOWED CONTENT" section and tap Websites. This area is about halfway down the page.

6. 

   6

   Tap Limit Adult Content. It's near the top of the page. A blue checkmark will appear to this option's left, signifying that it is active.

7. 

   7

   Tap Add a Website. Do this in the "NEVER ALLOW" section (not the "ALWAYS ALLOW" section) near the bottom of the page.

8. 

   8

   Type in your website's URL. This should be the website you want to block; make sure you include all parts of the website's URL (e.g., "www.example.com" rather than "example.com").

9. 

   9

   Tap Done. It's a blue button in the bottom-right corner of the keyboard. This will block your selected website in Safari.

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1. 

   1

   Open Spotlight

   
   . Click the magnifying glass icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

2. 

   2

   Type terminal into Spotlight. This will search your Mac for the Terminal app.

3. 

   3

   Click

   
   Terminal. It should be the top result beneath the Spotlight search bar.

4. 

   4

   Type sudo nano /etc/hosts into Terminal and press ⏎ Return. This will run a command to open the hosts file, which is a file on your Mac that controls the websites you can access in all web browsers—Safari included.

5. 

   5

   Enter your Mac's administrator password and press ⏎ Return. This is the password you use to log into your Mac. You won't see the characters appear as you type, but they will be entered into Terminal nonetheless.

6. 

   6

   Wait for the hosts file to open. This may take a few seconds. Once the file opens in a new window, you can proceed with editing it.

7. 

   7

   Scroll to the bottom of the file and press ⏎ Return. Use the ↓ arrow key to navigate to the bottom of the file. Pressing ⏎ Return will create a new line.

8. 

   8

   Type in 127.0.0.1 and then press Tab ↹. This should leave a few spaces' worth of room between 127.0.0.1 and the next piece of text.

9. 

   9

   Type in the URL of the website you want to block. This will typically consist of typing www., the website's name (e.g., Google), and .com, .net, or .org.

   • The line will look something like this: 127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com.
   • If you're blocking multiple websites, each URL must be on its own line.

10. 

    10

    Save and exit the editor. Once you have entered all of the sites that you want to block, save and exit by pressing Control+O and then pressing ⏎ Return. To exit the hosts file, press Control+X.

11. 

    11

    Flush your DNS. In order for the settings to take effect, you will need to flush your DNS cache. You can do this by typing sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder;say DNS cache has been flushed and pressing ⏎ Return.

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Add New Question

• Question

  How can I block something on an iOS device?

  

  To block a website like Facebook from stealing your information do the following: Follow these instructions to the "website" screen, but THEN, go to the "Limit Adult Content" section. There will be an option that says "Never Allow This site". Type in Facebook.

• Question

  At step 2 when I enter sudo nano /etc/hosts and press enter, I get a little symbol of a "key" which will not allow me to enter my administrator's password. Any suggestions to overcome this?

  

  When the key symbol appears, type the administrator's password and ignore the fact that what you type doesn't show up on the screen, then press enter. The password is just invisible on your screen for security reasons.

• Question

  I found that the method mentioned in the article blocks all the websites I have added except Bing. How do I block Bing?

  

  I have found that with some websites you need to add multiple versions of the url to get the block to work, such as one line with the 3 w's before the url and another without it.

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• Blocking a website from the Restrictions menu will also block it in other browsers on your iOS device.

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• Blocking a website in the hosts file will also block that website in all browsers on your Mac.

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About This Article

Article SummaryX

1. Open your iPhone's Settings.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Restrictions and enter your passcode.
4. Tap Websites in the "ALLOWED CONTENT" section.
5. Tap Limit Adult Content.
6. Tap Add a Website in the "NEVER ALLOW" section.
7. Enter your website's URL.
8. Tap Done.

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