How to set up parental controls on an iPhone or iPad

Apple's Screen Time is a good start, but its web filter only covers Safari. Here's how to cover every app and browser on the phone, on Wi‑Fi and on mobile data, in about three minutes.

Updated November 11, 2026·2 min read

Short answer

Turn on Screen Time for app limits and approvals, then install the Sheepdog Filter setup profile from Safari (Settings › Profile Downloaded › Install). That filters every app and browser, everywhere the phone goes. Finally set Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions › VPN & Device Management › Don't Allow so it can't be removed, and turn off iCloud Private Relay.

What Screen Time does, and doesn't do

Screen Time is built into every iPhone and iPad. It's worth turning on for app time limits, Downtime and Ask to Buy (you approve every app download). Its web filter, Limit Adult Websites, is decent in Safari but doesn't apply inside other apps, and it has no idea what TikTok, Roblox or Discord are.

Sheepdog Filter fills that gap: it filters every lookup the device makes, in every app and browser, so you can switch off a whole app or category with one switch.

Step 1: Turn on Screen Time (2 minutes)

  1. If your child has their own Apple Account, add them through Settings › your name › Family. Then manage Screen Time from your own phone.
  2. Open Settings › Screen Time and turn it on. Choose This is My Child's iPhone if you're on their phone.
  3. Turn on Ask to Buy in Family settings, so new apps need your OK.

Step 2: Install Sheepdog Filter (1 minute)

  1. In your Sheepdog Filter dashboard, open Devices, tap + Protect something, choose your child and iPhone or iPad. Open the setup link on the child's device in Safari (text it or AirDrop it).
  2. Tap Download setup profile, then Allow.
  3. Open Settings. Tap Profile Downloaded near the top, then Install, enter the passcode and tap Install again.

The setup page turns green with This device is protected. It works on Wi‑Fi and mobile data, at home and away.

Step 3: Make it stick

  1. In Screen Time, go to Content & Privacy Restrictions and turn it on.
  2. Set VPN & Device Management to Don't Allow. Now the profile can't be removed and VPN apps can't be added.
  3. Turn off iCloud Private Relay: Settings › your child's name › iCloud › Private Relay.
  4. Optional: in App Store, Media, Web & Games › Web Content, choose Limit Adult Websites as a second layer in Safari.

If your child ever does remove the setting, Sheepdog Filter emails you once the device has been quiet for 12 hours.

What you can switch on and off

From the dashboard, per child: social media, games, adult sites, gambling, ads, AI chatbots and companions, and individual apps like TikTok, Snapchat, Roblox or YouTube. SafeSearch and YouTube Restricted Mode are on by default. Add a bedtime to switch the internet off at night, or tap Homework mode to pause games, social and video until a time you pick.

Sheepdog Filter

The internet, childproofed in five minutes.

One switch per worry, every device in the house, and a plain-English report each week. Free to start, no app to install.

Start free

Questions parents ask

Does this work on mobile data, not just Wi-Fi?

Yes. The setup profile tells the iPhone to use Sheepdog Filter for every connection, Wi-Fi and cellular.

Will it drain the battery or slow the phone?

No. It's an Apple system setting, not an app running in the background, and lookups take milliseconds.

Can my child delete the profile?

Not if you set Content & Privacy Restrictions › VPN & Device Management to Don't Allow. Without that, a child with the passcode could remove it, and we'd email you when the device goes quiet.

Does it work on an iPad too?

Yes, the steps are the same on iPad.

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