How to Enforce a Content Filter on an iPhone

Tech Lockdown Team

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Updated October 25, 2024

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.

Connect your iPhone to a Content Filter

If a content filter monitors your iPhone's entire internet connection, chances are it uses a VPN connection. In most cases, you'll need to install a companion app that sets this up for you.

For example, if you're trying to connect your iPhone to your Tech Lockdown Content Policy, we have an app that will automatically create a VPN and connect your iPhone.

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Create a DNS Content Policy

Enforce content filtering rules on all your devices.

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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 about blocking apps on an iPhone for more information.

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 install our Config Preset to enforce this more reliably. The Preset can be found on the dashboard by going to Tools > iPhone > Config Presets.

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, since you can more reliably protect settings .

If you can't set up a supervised device, one alternative is to lock the settings app on an iPhone.

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:

1. Using Screen Time to prevent apps from being deleted
2. 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 by installing our Prevent Deleting Apps Config Preset:

In either case, apps will no longer have the option to be deleted if you long-press the app icon:

An example of what it looks like when the App Removal is restricted on an iPhone; the option to Delete App is removed.

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:

1. When the settings app is opened or closed, turn on the content filtering VPN
2. 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 our guide to learn how to enforce a filtered VPN connection for information about how to create this Shortcut.

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:

1. Make sure you already have the Content Filtering VPN activate on your iPhone
2. Prevent adding new VPN configurations
   

Device supervision lets you prevent new VPN profiles from being added to your iPhone.

To prevent the filtered VPN from being added on a supervised device, download the Enforce Cloudflare VPN preset from the Tech Lockdown dashboard. This will remove the option to remove the filtered VPN connection.

Additionally, download the Restrict New VPNs preset to prevent new VPN Configurations from being added.

Frequently Asked Questions

What settings can I lock on a Supervised iPhone?

We keep an updated list of all current Config Presets on our help docs page here .

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.

That being said, supervised mode completely removes anyone, including the owner of the device, from removing Config Presets.

How do I Enforce Supervised Profiles?

Before you download a Config Preset from the Tech Lockdown dashboard, make sure that the Uninstall Prevented optioned is switched on:

This should be enabled by default, but it's worth double-checking.

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.

By itself, Screen Time is not the best option:

1. Blocking app installs will completely stop apps from updating, because Screen Time blocks the entire App Store.
2. 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.