How to block websites on Mac

Turn on Content & Privacy

1. Choose Apple menu › System Settings and click Screen Time in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down. If Screen Time is off, turn it on first.

2. To set limits for a child in your Family Sharing group, choose the child from the Family Member menu. For your own account, skip this step.
3. Click Content & Privacy and turn it on if it’s off.

How to block websites on Mac with Screen Time

1. In Content & Privacy, click App Store, Media, Web, & Games. On macOS Sonoma it’s called Store, Web, Siri & Game Center Content.
2. In the Safari section, choose Limit Adult Websites. Many adult sites are now blocked automatically.
3. To block a particular site, click Customize, click the Add button under the Restricted list, enter the site’s address and click Done.

The Allowed list in the same window works the other way: sites you add there stay open even if the filter would block them.

Allow only the sites you choose

For a young child, a whitelist is safer than a filter. In the same Safari section, choose Allowed Websites Only, then click Customize. The list already has some sites in it. Add the ones you want with the Add button (a title and an address for each), and remove the rest. Every other site is blocked.

Apple describes these settings for Safari. If other browsers are installed on the Mac, open a blocked site in each of them to check that it is really blocked.

Lock the settings with a passcode

Without a passcode, anyone signed in to the account can turn the limits off. To prevent that:

1. Open System Settings › Screen Time. For a child, choose the child from the Family Member menu, then click Manage Screen Time.
2. Scroll down and turn on Lock Screen Time Settings.
3. Enter a four-digit passcode, then enter it again to confirm. Don’t use a birthday or 1234.