The Internet is flooded with lot of disturbing websites like violent, crime adult content and more. Some obscene adverts will take you to many places. It may seem that it is impossible to protect yourself, or your child, from them.
Methods to Block a Website
In this post, I will show you how you can effectively block a website on Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Mac Pc and also by blocking websites on all the wifi connected devices using the DNS change in your Router.
- DNS change in Router (Recommended)
- Google Chrome Browser
- Android App
- iPhone/iPad.
- Windows PC
1. Editing Host File
2. Family Safety Tool - Mac PC.
1. Open DNS – Router, Laptop and Mobile
Open DNS features includes phishing protection and optional content filtering, where the free version comes with family shield, which is pre-configured to block adult content.
- Visit the Open DNS website’s Home Internet Security page. https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/
- Sign up for Open DNS Home. For this, click on the SIGN UP button on the page.
- Fill up the form and click on the “Get a free account button.”
- Once that is done, you will be presented with a DNS IP address. You need to use that IP as your DNS.
- or Choose SETUP GUIDE and Follow these instructions to set up Open DNS
2. Block websites on Google Chrome Browser
Sometimes you need Parental control on your children or Admin control or self-control to restrict them from visiting some websites.
1. Go to Chrome Web Store and Choose Extensions and search “Block Site” or goto Block website and Add to Chrome
2. Now you’ll find the extension in your Browser, Click on the Block site extension and you will find “Options”,
3. Now you could find the options to Block site, enter the URL and Click add page..
To Unblock the website, remove the URL from “Block site” extension.
3. Android App to Block Websites on Phones
Blocksite is the best android app to block any website, also you can control any application from opening to stop your mobile phone addiction.
With this app you’ll get features like content filtering setting, Time Management setting, One click adult website blocker, Drunk texting and dial blocker, Scheduled blocking and many other features for free.
4. Block websites on iPhone/iPad
Unlike Android, you don’t have to install an app on your iPhone to block websites, you can make simple settings change to your iphone. Here are the Simple and instant steps to restrict any website on iPhone or iPad-
- Open Settings.
- Go to Screen Time.
- Click on Content & Privacy Restrictions.
- Go to Content Restrictions and Click Web Content.
- Click Limit Adult Websites
- Now below “Never Allow” click Add website
- Add list of websites you don’t want to show on Safari or any browser you use on your iPhone or iPad and those websites will never show up on your iPhone browsers anymore.
Bonus: How to Block Ads in a Website
5. 1. Windows PC – Editing Host file
Host file is a small text file which is used to map host names to IP Address. making change in this host file reflects for all users. follow the steps given below to change the host file and block websites,
- Open Windows explorer and go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
2. Right click the host file and open with Notepad
3. Go to the bottom of the doc and type enter to create new line and start typing 127.0.0.1 followed by the domain name, as shown below.
4. save the file
Now open your browser and check for google or yahoo website and you’ll see error message.
5. 2. Windows – Family Safety Tools
Family Safety Tools allow you to block age-inappropriate apps from your PC as well as monitor a person’s activity. Turning on this feature is easy and helpful if you want to keep yourself or your children safe from the porn flood.
- Download the Windows Essential Tools from Microsoft. This tool package is completely free of cost and included with Windows 7 and newer by default. If you don’t have the package, you can download it from this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17779
- Click on Start > Control Panel > Set up parental controls for any user.
- Click on “Agree” if you are running parental controls for the first time. Next you will be prompted to sign into your Microsoft account. Enter your username and password and click on the Sign In button. If you don’t have a Microsoft account yet, click on the blue colored Sign up link and fill the form.
- Next you will be asked to click on all the accounts which you want to apply Parental control to. Check all the accounts you want to monitor and then click on the Next button.
- You will be prompted to fill in some forms and select appropriate choices. The process is interactive, easy and dependent on what you want to do. Once all that is done, you can visit the Microsoft website, sign in and then check what has been done using the account you are monitoring.
You may also like: How to unblock a website
6. How to Block Websites on Mac Pc.
Just like the host file edit for a Windows PC, we can use host file edit on Mac PC directly to block a sites, instead of browser settings or installing an App you can follow these steps in the Mac Terminal.
- Open Terminal
- Type “sudo nano /etc/hosts”
- Type Password and Hit Return.
- Now, you’ll see the host file
- Type 127.0.0.1 followed by the website you want to block.
- Like, 127.0.0.1 apple.com
Now, try opening apple.com in your safari browser and you’ll see “Safari can’t open the page” message.
You may also like: 10 Proxy Websites for Anonymous and Safe Browsing
Bonus – Safe search settings in Google:
Google allows its users to turn on safe search mode which automatically removes all the Violent, Crime and pornographic content from search results. In case any violent or adult content is explicitly searched, no results are shown.
To turn on Google safe search, follow the steps below:
- Visit www.google.com.
- Click on “Settings” in the lower-right side of the screen as shown in the picture below.
- On clicking on “Settings” a bubble window will come up. Click on “Search Settings” from the bubble window.
- You will be taken to the “Search Settings Page.” Make sure that the checkbox in front of the “Turn On SafeSearch” option is checked like shown in the picture below. Next, scroll down and click on “Save.”
