How to block porn on an iPad

A locked phone and an open iPad on the sofa is not a block, it is a relocation. iPads run the same iOS restrictions as the iPhone, but they are usually set up more casually — shared account, no passcode on Screen Time, half the family signed in — which makes them the soft target.

> Setting it up on your own iPad

Settings, Screen Time, Content & Privacy Restrictions, turn the switch on, then Content Restrictions, Web Content, Limit Adult Websites. Then Lock Screen Time Settings with a four-digit code you do not choose. It is the same flow as the iPhone and takes about four minutes.

The step people skip: decline the Apple ID recovery prompt. If your own Apple ID can reset the Screen Time passcode, the passcode belongs to you no matter who typed it.

> Setting it up on a family or shared iPad

• ▪Use Family Sharing and make the iPad a child device rather than an adult one, so the supervising account controls restrictions remotely.
• ▪Set Apps to 12+ so adult-rated apps cannot be installed.
• ▪Turn off Installing Apps and Deleting Apps under Purchases so the filter app cannot be uninstalled.
• ▪Turn off Safari's private browsing under the same restrictions screen.

> The Apple ID trap

Signing out and into a different Apple ID resets a surprising amount of this. Under Content & Privacy Restrictions, set Account Changes to Don't Allow. That one switch closes the most common reset path on a shared tablet.

> Cover the whole household, not one device

Set a filtering DNS on the router. It takes ten minutes once and it covers the iPad, the laptop, the TV and every guest device. Per-device filters will always have a gap; the network layer does not care which device is asking.

Any device you did not configure is the device that gets used. Filter the network, then the devices.

> And the part settings cannot do

Restrictions decide what the tablet can reach. They do not decide whether you turn them off. If you are blocking yourself rather than a child, put a locked timer on top: choose the apps and categories, set the duration, and give the key to someone who will not hand it back at midnight.