

Meet Focus - a simple website blocker that also works for apps and even specific webpages, all right from your Mac’s menu bar. Some of us just don’t need those complications and wish there was an easier way. And every time you’ll catch yourself or your kids coming up with a new workaround, you’ll have to devise a way to solve that too.Īnd what if you share the same computer with your children? Then you’d have to use the passcode to undo the changes every time you pass the laptop to each other. It takes a while to get all the settings just right. The truth is Screen Time is not really intuitive and somewhat complicated to manage. Easily block websites without changing settings Then switch to the Apps tab and uncheck any apps that shouldn’t be used.Īs mentioned above, Screen Time doesn’t differentiate between browsers, so if you were looking for how to block a website on Chrome or how to block website on Safari - it’s all the same. In Web Content, select either to Limit Adult Websites or Allowed Websites Only if you know which websites are absolutely needed. Then, to use Screen Time as a web and app blocker as well as a complete self-control app, click Content & Privacy ➙ Turn On. In the same window, you can also “Share across devices” to have the same settings for all devices of a particular iCloud user. First, you want to prevent anyone but yourself from changing your settings, so go to Options and choose to Use Screen Time Passcode. Screen Time will then block websites in Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and any other browser at once. You can also use specific limits if you’re setting up a computer for your kids.


Blocking websites and apps with Screen TimeĪs the name suggests, Screen Time was developed by Apple to help anyone be in control of their Mac usage and, by extension, control the Mac usage of their kids too. A similar feature on Windows is called Family Safety, so if you’ve encountered that before, a lot of the steps will sound familiar, although there are some key differences as well. We’ll start by tackling the flow for the Screen Time feature, available in macOS Catalina and later, which significantly expanded on Parental Controls that Macs have been using for years. Surprisingly, most people aren’t even aware this is a possibility or don’t use it as it seems to be too complicated to set up. Restricting access to apps and websites has been a feature on both Windows and Macs since the early days.
