How to block websites on an iPad. And what Apple misses.

The iPad is the most-shared device in most households — and the one most likely to be handed to a child unsupervised. Apple gives you real tools here. They're just weaker and more selective than the setup screen implies.

Everything Apple offers for content blocking lives under Screen Time. Set it up properly first, then decide whether the gaps matter to you.

Step 1: Turn on Screen Time with a passcode you don't reuse

1. Settings → Screen Time.
2. Tap Lock Screen Time Settings and set a 4-digit passcode.
3. Use a code that is not the device unlock code and not a family birthday.

This step is the one parents most often skip, and it makes everything after it decorative. Without a Screen Time passcode, your child can turn all of it off in the Settings app in about eight seconds.

Step 2: Restrict web content

1. Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → toggle on.
2. Content Restrictions → Web Content.
3. Choose Limit Adult Websites, or Allowed Websites Only for young children.
4. Under Never Allow, add specific domains.

Allowed Websites Only is genuinely strong — it's an allowlist, so anything you haven't approved is blocked by default. For a child under about eight, it's the right setting and worth the friction.

Limit Adult Websites is a different story. It's Apple's automated classifier, and it's inconsistent: it reliably catches large mainstream adult sites and reliably misses smaller ones, mirrors, newly registered domains, and most content hosted inside other platforms.

Step 3: Close the four gaps

Gap 1: Other browsers

Web Content restrictions apply to Safari and to apps that use Apple's web view. A separately installed browser may not honour them. The cleanest fix is to disallow other browsers entirely: Content & Privacy Restrictions → Allowed Apps, and restrict what can be installed via iTunes & App Store Purchases → Installing Apps → Don't Allow.

Gap 2: In-app browsers

Tapping a link inside a social app opens a browser window inside that app. Depending on how the app is built, your Safari-level restrictions may not apply. This is how a great deal of content reaches kids on locked-down iPads.

Gap 3: Deleting and reinstalling

If app installation is allowed, a child can delete a monitored app and reinstall it fresh. Turn off Deleting Apps under Allowed Apps.

Gap 4: The passcode reset flow

If your Apple ID is attached to the Screen Time passcode as a recovery option and your child knows that password, they can reset the passcode themselves. Make sure the recovery Apple ID is yours and its password isn't shared.

Step 4: Add DNS-level filtering

Every gap above exists because Apple's filtering is applied per-app. DNS filtering is applied per-device: the domain doesn't resolve, so it doesn't matter which app asked for it.

Defenras installs on iPad as a DNS profile. Once it's active:

• Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and every in-app browser are covered identically.
• Adult content, gambling, vaping, scam, and malware domains are blocked by default.
• You can add your own domains from the parent dashboard.
• Removing the profile requires your PIN.
• Nothing about your child's browsing is logged or transmitted.

A workable setup, in order

1. Screen Time passcode set, not reused, recovery Apple ID is yours.
2. Web Content set to Allowed Websites Only (young) or Limit Adult Websites (older).
3. App installation and deletion turned off.
4. Defenras DNS profile installed and PIN-locked.
5. Downtime scheduled so the iPad is unusable overnight.