Apps To Block Internet Access Mac

13-05-2021
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Set Content & Privacy Restrictions

  1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
  2. Tap Continue, then choose 'This is My [Device]' or 'This is My Child's [Device]'.
    • If you're the parent or guardian of your device and want to prevent another family member from changing your settings, tap Use Screen Time Passcode to create a passcode, then re-enter the passcode to confirm. In iOS 13.4 and later, after you confirm your passcode you'll be asked to enter your Apple ID and password. This can be used to reset your Screen Time passcode if you forget it.
    • If you're setting up Screen Time on your child's device, follow the prompts until you get to Parent Passcode and enter a passcode. Re-enter the passcode to confirm. In iOS 13.4 and later, after you confirm your passcode you'll be asked to enter your Apple ID and password. This can be used to reset your Screen Time passcode if you forget it.
  3. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. If asked, enter your passcode, then turn on Content & Privacy.

Make sure that you choose a passcode that's different from the passcode you use to unlock your device. To change or turn off the passcode on your child's device, tap Settings > Screen Time > [your child's name]. Then tap Change Screen Time Passcode or Turn Off Screen Time Passcode, and authenticate the change with Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode.

Apps To Block Internet Access Mac

Dec 04, 2018  Self-Control is a simple, free, and open-source Mac app that helps you focus by letting you block websites or anything else on the internet (such as mail servers) as you see fit. Then, you set a timer for yourself and dedicate the next however many minutes to a distraction-free focus session.

If you forgot your Screen Time passcode, update your device to the latest iOS or iPadOS then reset your passcode. If you can’t update your device, delete it and set it up as new to remove the passcode and choose a new one. Restoring your device from a backup won't remove your passcode.

Learn more about using Family Sharing with Screen Time.

Prevent iTunes & App Store purchases

You can also prevent your child from being able to install or delete apps, make in-app purchases and more. To prevent iTunes & App Store purchases or downloads:

Or click OK to send the report without relaunching the app.With OS X's default settings, a dialog box like this appears after most app crashes. Finder app on mac book keeps crashing. Click Reopen to send a report to Apple and relaunch the app.If you don’t want to send Apple information about crashes automatically, go to the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences, click the lock icon, and enter your username and password to unlock it. Then click Privacy, select Diagnostics & Usage, and uncheck Send diagnostic & usage data to Apple. If you see one of these, click Reopen to send Apple a report with details about your system configuration and what went wrong, and then relaunch the app. App crashes are usually accompanied by an error message.

  1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
  2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. If asked, enter your passcode.
  3. Tap iTunes & App Store Purchases.
  4. Choose a setting and set to Don't Allow.

You can also change your password settings for additional purchases from the iTunes & App Store or Book Store. Follow steps 1-3, then choose Always Require or Don't Require.

Allow built-in apps and features

You can restrict the use of built-in apps or features. If you turn off an app or feature, it won’t delete it, it’s just temporarily hidden from your Home screen. For example, if you turn off Mail, the Mail app won't appear on your Home Screen until you turn it back on.

To change your Allowed Apps:

  1. Go to Settings > Screen Time.
  2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.
  3. Enter your Screen Time passcode.
  4. Tap Allowed Apps.
  5. Select the apps that you want to allow.

Prevent explicit content and content ratings

You can also prevent the playback of music with explicit content and movies or TV shows with specific ratings. Apps also have ratings that can be configured using content restrictions.

To restrict explicit content and content ratings:

  1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
  2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions, then tap Content Restrictions.
  3. Choose the settings you want for each feature or setting under Allowed Store Content.

Here are the types of content that you can restrict:

  • Ratings For: Select the country or region in the ratings section to automatically apply the appropriate content ratings for that region
  • Music, Podcasts & News: Prevent the playback of music, music videos, podcasts and news containing explicit content
  • Music Profiles & Posts: Prevent sharing what you're listening to with friends and seeing what they're listening to
  • Movies: Prevent movies with specific ratings
  • TV shows: Prevent TV shows with specific ratings
  • Books: Prevent content with specific ratings
  • Apps: Prevent apps with specific ratings

Prevent web content

iOS can automatically filter website content to limit access to adult content in Safari and apps on your device. You can also add specific websites to an approved or blocked list, or you can limit access to only approved websites. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings > Screen Time.
  2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and enter your Screen Time passcode.
  3. Tap Content Restrictions, then tap Web Content.
  4. Choose Unrestricted Access, Limit Adult Websites or Allowed Websites Only.

Depending on the access you allow, you may need to add information, like the website that you want to restrict.

Restrict Siri web search

To restrict Siri features:

  1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
  2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions, then tap Content Restrictions.
  3. Scroll down to Siri, then choose your settings.

You can restrict these Siri features:

  • Web Search Content: Prevent Siri from searching the web when you ask a question
  • Explicit Language: Prevent Siri from displaying explicit language

Restrict Game Center

To restrict Game Center features:

  1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
  2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions, then tap Content Restrictions.
  3. Scroll down to Game Center, then choose your settings.

You can restrict these Game Center features:

  • Multiplayer Games: Prevent the ability to play multiplayer games
  • Adding Friends: Prevent the ability to add friends to Game Center
  • Screen Recording: Prevent the ability to capture the screen and sound

Allow changes to privacy settings

The privacy settings on your device give you control over which apps have access to information stored on your device or the hardware features. For example, you can allow a social networking app to request access to use the camera, which allows you to take and upload pictures.

To allow changes to privacy settings:

  1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
  2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. If asked, enter your passcode.
  3. Tap Privacy, then choose the settings you want to restrict.

Here are the things you can restrict:

  • Location Services: Lock the settings to allow apps and websites to use location
  • Contacts: Prevent apps from accessing your Contacts
  • Calendars: Prevent apps from accessing your Calendar
  • Reminders: Prevent apps from accessing your Reminders
  • Photos: Prevent apps from requesting access to your photos
  • Share My Location: Lock the settings for location sharing in Messages and Find My Friends
  • Bluetooth sharing: Prevent devices and apps from sharing data through Bluetooth
  • Microphone: Prevent apps from requesting access to your microphone
  • Speech Recognition: Prevent apps from accessing Speech Recognition or Dictation
  • Advertising: Prevent changes to advertising settings
  • Media & Apple Music: Prevent apps from accessing your photos, videos or music library

Allow changes to other settings and features

You can allow changes to other settings and features, the same way you can allow changes to privacy settings.

  1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
  2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. If asked, enter your passcode.
  3. Under Allow Changes, select the features or settings you want to allow changes to and choose Allow or Don't Allow.

Here are some features and settings you can allow changes for:

  • Passcode Changes: Prevent changes to your passcode.
  • Account Changes: Prevent changes to settings for Accounts & Passwords
  • Cellular Data Changes: Prevent changes to cellular data settings
  • Volume Limit: Prevent changes to volume settings for safe listening
  • Do Not Disturb While Driving: Prevent changes to Do Not Disturb While Driving
  • TV Provider: Prevent changes to TV provider settings
  • Background App Activities: Prevent changes to whether or not apps run in the background.

Learn more

  • Set up Family Sharing with up to six people to share content, as well as request and make purchases with Ask to Buy.
  • You can also use Restrictions on your Mac or PC and Apple TV.
  • Learn how to prevent in-app Purchases or change the credit card that you use in the iTunes Store.

Businesses and schools often use profiles, which can turn on Restrictions. To find out if your device has a profile, go to Settings > General > Profiles. Contact your administrator or the person who set up the profile for more information.

Internet
One-click website blocker

Apps To Block Internet Access Mac Server

Use Focus to remove online distractions on demand.

The web has the capacity to be both a blessing and a curse at the same time. On the one hand, it enables us to do the work we do and access the wealth of human knowledge. On the other hand, it distracts us from our goals and can even be outright dangerous for our kids.

Naturally, the topic of limiting web access has been in discussion for decades now. How do we block websites full of porn for our kids? What does blocking websites like Facebook and YouTube mean for a modern workplace? Why do we need to restrict ourselves with website blockers to resist temptation and distractions?

All these are valid questions we’ll explore below, in addition to showing you the best ways to block websites that seem to steal your attention all day long.

Get a solution for sites blocking

Install Setapp on Mac and boost your browsing experience. Or, rather let Setapp boost it by blocking sites that distract you.

How To Block Websites On Mac

Restricting access to apps and websites has been a feature on both Windows and Macs since the early days. 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.

We’ll start by tackling the flow for Parental Controls on Mac. If you’ve used a similar feature on Windows before called Family Safety, the steps would sound familiar, although there are some key differences.

Protection starts at the core.The technically sophisticated runtime protections in macOS work at the very core of your Mac to keep your system safe from malware. Free internet security software mac.

Blocking websites with Parental Controls

As the name suggests, the Parental Controls feature was developed by Apple to help parents put certain restrictions on their kids, such as accessing adult websites, addictive games, endless video streams, etc.

Lately, however, it hasn’t been uncommon for employers to set Parental Controls for their employees, mostly to limit social media usage or deter them from reading news websites throughout the day.

Regardless of your intended application for Parental Controls, here’s how to set it up:

  1. Open Parental Controls from System Preferences
  2. If you have an account you want to restrict already set up, just choose it from the list. If you don’t, click to create a new user account and then Continue.
  3. Fill out all the necessary information and click Create User

Now you should see the full Parental Controls menu with tabs such as Apps, Web, Stores, Time, Privacy, and Other. Feel free to explore all of them and set the restrictions that you deem a good fit. But first, let’s walk through the most popular setups.

To limit your kids exposure to adult websites, go over to the Web tab and choose “Try to limit access to adult websites.” Click Customize to enter websites you want your kids to visit at any time or never go to at all. Similarly, if you don’t want your employees wasting time on social media, you can include any those websites here too.

If you only allow children to visit a handful of websites overall, then choose “Allow access to only these websites” and list them all in the window below using the plus button.

To limit certain apps, navigate to the Apps tab and check “Limit Applications on this Mac.” Now in the Allowed Apps window, click on the dropdown arrow and select any applications that you’re fine with kids having access to.

When you are done, simply click the padlock icon on the bottom left to lock your settings in place. If you want to ensure that over time you kids don’t find a sneaky way to go around your settings, you can infrequently monitor their logs by going into the Logs menu available on the bottom right of your Parental Controls panel.

One important mention is that if you are searching for how to block a website on Chrome or how to block website on Safari, this description above is the way to do it. Parental Controls doesn’t differentiate between browsers, so its settings will work on Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser you use.

Easily block websites without changing settings

The truth is Parental Controls are somewhat complicated. It takes a while to get all the settings just right. And every time you catch your kids coming up with a new workaround, you have to devise a way to solve that too.

And what if you share the same computer with your children? Then you need to log out and log in every time you pass the laptop to each other. Some of us just don’t need those complications and wish there was an easier way. Luckily, there is.

Microsoft Access For Mac

Meet Focus - a simple website blocker that also works for apps and even specific webpages, all right from your Mac’s menu bar.

To block out distractions in Focus:

  1. Click on the app’s icon in the menu bar > Preferences
  2. Navigate to the Blocking tab
  3. Add any websites, webpages, and applications to the list using plus icons at the bottom. You’re done!

The beauty of Focus is that it doesn’t enforce the focus mode all the time - it works in sessions, which is perfect for sharing the same computer with your kids. So when your kids are asking for some playtime, you can just click on the app’s icon and select “Focus for 25 minutes” or “Custom focus..” to set the period of time during which blocking websites will be enforced.

To prevent your kids from changing settings, just go to Preferences again and, in the General tab, check the “Hardcore mode.” For extra safety, you can also turn on the “Password mode.”

What if your kids have their own computer? Not a problem. In the Preferences window, you can choose Schedule and set the limits you desire.

Eliminate distractions to be more productive

Another major advantage of Focus over Parental Controls is that it works not only for your kids but for you too. Don’t you sometimes wish you could block websites on Mac? Turn off YouTube, eliminate Facebook, stay away from Reddit - Focus makes it easy.

Just follow the same instructions as you would for your kid: block websites and apps, set up a schedule that mirrors your work hours, and lock preferences during sessions to minimize temptation.

As we all know, it’s impossible to work undistracted for eight hours straight. In fact, small breaks throughout the day are highly beneficial to your productivity. Focus allows you to turn off the website blocker for a small amount of time in the Break mode.

The app would also delight the followers of the Pomodoro technique, which automatically lets you have a short break after an intensive focus session. You can set it up your break periods in Preferences as well.

For extra motivation, you can include a list of your favorite “go get it” phrases in the Quotes tab in the app’s preferences as well. These quotes will appear when you try to access one of the blocked websites and remind you to get back to what’s truly important.

Quickly concentrate on the task at hand

If Focus can easily solve all your problems related to blocking websites and apps that waste your time, it won’t really help you concentrate on a single task amidst your cluttered desktop and a heap of open windows. That’s where you need HazeOver.

HazeOver is essentially a professional screen dimmer. While it’s not a way to block websites on Mac, it’s the perfect solution for your scattered focus. What this app does is highlighting the currently active window and dimming the rest of the screen, including notifications and other apps.

Even though HazeOver is simple in its application, it allows you to fine-tune every single setting to suit your needs. By going to its preferences from the menu bar icon, you can set how strong the dimming effect is, whitelist apps you don’t want dimmed, which is useful when you work with two windows at the same time, and configure how the apps will work on two or more displays.

As a bonus, HazeOver is perfect for working at night, as it only lets the light from the active app window to go through instead of overwhelming you with an ocean of blue light, which will make it harder to fall asleep later on. Similarly, watching a movie in the evening is so much more pleasant when HazeOver is there to dim everything around the video app.

Use the right website blocker at the right time

Overall, if you’ve used to tinker with all the complex settings in Family Safety on Windows or simply like the granular level of control, using Parental Controls is certainly an option.

For the rest of us, using Focus + HazeOver presents a much more flexible solution - one that can protect our kids and not let us slack off at the same time.

A bundle of apps for free

Every app mentioned above is a part of Setapp. By downloading one, you get access to everything you need to improve browsing.

Best of all, both Focus and HazeOver are available on Setapp, a platform of over 150 highly acclaimed tools, utilities, and apps for your Mac. Sign up to become a Setapp member and try Focus, HazeOver, and all other apps from its catalogue for free during your trial period. In the meantime, how to block websites on Mac should no longer be a pressing issue.