How to block websites on your phone

Block websites on iPhone with Screen Time

Screen Time can block specific sites, though the setting is tucked inside the content restrictions meant for kids. It works in Safari and in other browsers. Menu names shift a little between iOS versions, but the path is usually:

1. Open Settings and tap Screen Time.
2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and turn it on.
3. Tap App Store, Media, Web & Games, then Web Content.
4. Choose Limit Adult Websites.
5. Under Never Allow, tap Add Website and type the address, for example reddit.com.

The catch with Screen Time's website list

Limit Adult Websites also filters sites Apple considers adult, so turning it on to block one site can block others you didn't expect. And the list is all or nothing: there is no schedule, so a site you block for work hours stays blocked at night too. Undoing it means going back through the same menus, which is easy when you're the one who set it.

Block websites on Android

Android doesn't have a built-in way to block websites on your own phone. Digital Wellbeing can put a timer on a site only inside Chrome, it can't block one, and Chrome has no blocklist setting for a regular personal account.

Google's Family Link can block sites in Chrome, but it's parental control: it's meant for a parent managing a child's supervised account, not for blocking sites on yourself. Chrome Enterprise policies work the same way for company phones. So on a personal Android phone, a blocker app is the practical option.

If you do use Digital Wellbeing, it can still help a little: put a timer on Chrome itself. That limits all browsing, though, not one site, which is rarely what you want.

Which sites people usually block

The sites that eat time on a phone are mostly the web versions of the apps you already limit: youtube.com, reddit.com, instagram.com, tiktok.com, x.com, plus news sites. If you block the TikTok app but not tiktok.com, the browser becomes the shortcut the first time the craving hits.

So the useful habit is to block the app and its site together, in one rule. Then a schedule or a daily allowance applies to both, and there is no back door.

Other ways that half work

None of these is wrong, but they're either too broad, too technical or too easy to undo for blocking a couple of sites on yourself.

• DNS filters and "family" DNS block categories like adult content, not the specific sites you choose, and they're easy to switch off.
• Editing a hosts file needs a rooted phone on Android and isn't possible on iPhone.
• Logging out of the site helps a little: having to type a password adds a few seconds of thought.
• Browser extensions that block sites mostly work on desktop browsers. On a phone, most browsers don't run them.

Block websites on both with Paradox

Paradox is a free app blocker for iPhone and Android, and a rule can hold apps and websites together. Add youtube.com next to the YouTube app, or block news sites during work hours, and the rule follows its schedule on its own.

On Android, Paradox reads the browser's address bar through the Accessibility permission, so it works in every browser and puts your guardian in front of the site. It sees which site is open, never what you type, and nothing leaves the phone.

On iPhone, blocking happens in a system layer under every browser. One difference to know: a blocked site shows Apple's own block screen instead of your guardian, and there is no temporary pass for it.

• Free forever, no ads, no account needed to block.
• Schedules (a 9 to 5 work rule) or a daily allowance (45 minutes a day).
• Apps and sites in the same rule.
• iPhone with iOS 16 or later, Android 8.0 or later.