Block Adult Content
How to Enforce a Content Filter on an iPhone
There are many different ways that you can enforce your iPhone's connection to your DNS Content Policy.
If you’ve connected your iPhone to a DNS Content Policy so that content filtering is enabled, chances are that you want to enforce the filtered connection so it can’t be easily disabled. On iPhone, you have two main ways to connect it to a content filtering DNS Content policy: either with a VPN connection added by an app or using a DNS Configuration profile. There are a few effective methods for enforcing content filtering on iPhone that we'll explore in this guide.
Choosing a way to Connect your iPhone to a Content Filter
The first thing you need to do when considering how you'd enforce Content Filtering is to pick an approach for connecting the iPhone to a content filtering DNS Content Policy.
There are two general approaches:
- Install an app, which will configure an always-on VPN connection.
- Download a DNS configuration file that sets the iphone's network settings to use content filtering DNS servers.
We recommend reading this guide to see what enforcement methods exist depending on the method you choose.
Content Filtering VPN App
Content filtering apps will typically request adding a VPN configuration.
This modifies the iPhone's VPN settings.
DNS Config File Pointing to a Content Filter
iPhones have the added ability to install DNS Configuration profiles that enforce DNS settings directly. You can install these by downloading a file on your iPhone without needing an app.
These DNS profiles are typically less obvious, and as a result, harder to remove or disable. We provide instructions in our help docs for how to create your own DNS Configuration profile (using our config generator) and install that profile onto your iPhone.
Universal Enforcement Methods
Regardless of the connection approach you choose, these are the bypass prevention techniques we recommend in both cases.
Restrict Apps
It's important to restrict the apps that can be downloaded on the iPhone to limit apps that would conflict with a content filter.
We'd recommend creating app blocklists as a minimum bypass prevention technique, but you can also prevent any new apps from being downloaded as well. Refer to our guide below for more details.
Not necessary with supervised mode
Block Apps
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Enable Built-in Content Filtering
Apple provides a content filter built-in to iOS called screen time . We recommend enabling it as an additional content filtering layer alongside DNS-level filtering with the Content Policy. Also, enabling this mode can prevent some common bypass techniques.
There are two ways to enable it, either using Screen Time or Apple's better alternative to screen time , supervised mode.
You can turn on Limit Adult Websites under Web Content Filtering in screen time settings.
If your device has the restrictive supervised mode enabled, you can turn on this built-in filter without using screen time in a more enforceable way.
Optional: Block access to Settings
We recommend reading through the rest of this guide before determining if you want to block the iPhone's settings app . If you set up a supervised device, you shouldn't need to restrict access the general settings app on iOS.
If you can't set up a supervised device, one alternative is to lock the settings app on an iPhone.
You can now block access to the Settings app to make it harder to change settings. There are a few different ways that you might choose to do this, use the guide below:
iPhone
How to Lock Settings on an iPhone
Learn a few effective methods for enforcing settings on an iPhone and locking settings in place so they can't be bypassed or changed.
Content Filtering VPN App Enforcement Methods
If you're using a content filtering app, which adds a VPN connection to connect you to your Content Policy, these enforcement methods should be considered.
Prevent the VPN App from Being Deleted on your iPhone
In order to enforce the app that establishes the connection using a VPN, you need to make sure that it can't be deleted from the iPhone.
There are two ways to do this:
- Using Screen Time to prevent apps from being deleted
- Using Supervised mode to prevent apps from being deleted
Here's how you'd do this with screen time:
If
supervised mode
is enabled, you can configure the iPhone to prevent deleting apps by unchecking Allow removing apps (supervised only).
Auto-Enable a Content Filtering VPN Connection with Apple Shortcuts and Automations
Another option is to use Shortcuts to automatically enable the correct VPN profile if the Settings app is open or closed. Plus, you can also enforce the VPN to be active when a specific app is opened, such as a browser.
There are several shortcuts you should create:
- When the settings app is opened or closed, turn on the content filtering VPN
- When a browser is opened or closed, turn on the content filtering VPN
The content filtering VPN should always be active, but this approach helps you deal with someone switching to another VPN provider or turning off the VPN connection in settings.
Reference the guide below for step-by-step instructions:
iPhone
How to Enforce a VPN on an iPhone
Prevent bypass of VPNs that filter content on an iPhone by enforcing VPN profiles and preventing a user from overriding them.
Prevent Overriding or Deleting the Content Filtering VPN Profile
Another area to lock down is to prevent the iPhone user from adding VPN configurations that would conflict or override your Content Filtering VPN and to also prevent deleting the VPN connection in iOS settings. There are a few steps you have to follow to achieve this:
- Make sure you already have the Content Filtering VPN activate on your iPhone
- Prevent adding new VPN configurations
Device supervision lets you prevent new VPN profiles from being added to your iPhone.
Important
DNS Configuration Profile Enforcement Methods
If you've installed the DNS Config file onto your iPhone, then these are some of the methods you should use to prevent it from being removed.
These methods will only work if your iPhone's supervised. If you have a standard iPhone device (one that's not supervised), consider locking the settings app on iPhone instead.
Download Configuration with Prevent Bypass Enabled
Our DNS Config generator has the option to include the prevent bypass restrictions when you download first downloaded the profile. You can enable it when you first create it, then download the profile to your smartphone.
Enforce a Wi-Fi Filtered Connection to Prevent switching to Cellular Data
If you want to ensure that you can't cellular data while at home, you can prevent turning off Wi-Fi on your iPhone. If you have your home router's internet connection filtered, your iPhone won't be able to switch to cellular if you're at home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to supervise an iPhone to prevent bypass?
In most cases, you can find a combination of Screen Time and app Shortcuts that will be able to prevent most attempts at bypassing.
However, supervising gives you more reliable bypass prevention options and you can generally use your iPhone as normal. For example, you wouldn't need to block the settings app.
How do I Enforce Screen Time Settings?
When setting a passcode, you have the option to use another account to unlock those settings later. We recommend using a secondary Apple ID (if you’re self-managing) or an accountability partner’s account. Otherwise, it’s too easy to reset your Screen Time settings.
You can also lock settings using the Shortcuts app on your iPhone. Doing this means that if you try to open the Settings app, your iPhone just goes opens the HomeScreen instead.
Screen Time doesn’t let you block iPhone apps , but you can set a really low App Time limit:
Using Screen Time alone, you have to consider some shortcomings:
- Blocking app installs will completely stop apps from updating, because Screen Time blocks the entire App Store.
- The passcode used to lock Screen Time settings is very short (only four digits). If you're self-managing, that might be too easy to remember.
That’s why we typically recommend supervising your iPhone device to get even more powerful restrictions that still allow app updates.
How do I Enforce Supervised Profiles?
You can stop any attempts to disable or delete supervised profiles that you've added to your iPhone.
In the security section, set Security to Never:
You can optionally add a passcode.
Are there any alternatives to Supervised mode or Screen Time?
For most users, device supervision is enough to lock down their device. However, if you need a highly restrictive setup that fully controls your iPhone’s experience, we recommend device management.
Device management is a step above supervision and lets you achieve a dumb iPhone configuration . Instead of controlling settings with a Mac, you are fully controlling a device using a Mobile Device Managing service. Doing so with Apple devices isn’t an easy process, but Tech Lockdown members will have access to step-by-step premium guides that will help walk you through this process.
You can upload the configuration profile to the Mobile Device Manager to remotely install the profile, so you won't need to connect your iPhone to a Mac in order to install it. Similar to device supervision, this profile can't be removed from the iPhone itself.
You can also completely restrict access to the Settings app using kiosk mode. This can also be used on other default apps, like Safari or the App Store:
You can also remotely install apps and create a list of approved apps:
And remotely block apps that shouldn’t be installed by choosing Bloclist App:
