My kid just got an iPhone and I’m trying to stop access to certain sites without locking down everything else. I’ve played with the built-in restrictions but it’s confusing and easy to bypass-what apps or settings actually work for blocking specific websites?
iOS won’t actually let third‑party apps block sites system‑wide without going through Apple’s Screen Time or MDM APIs, so your most reliable move is locking Screen Time Web Content filtering behind a passcode they don’t know, or pushing a NextDNS profile to handle blocking at the network level. Skip the “universal web blockers” in the App Store—they’re usually just Safari extensions or heavy VPN wrappers that kids easily dodge by switching browsers or turning Wi‑Fi off. Set it up once, keep that passcode locked away like the good snacks in the pantry, and it’ll actually stick.