Limit Adult vs Only Approved Websites

Limit Adult Websites blocks what Apple detects and allows the rest. Only Approved Websites allows what you list and blocks the rest. The first leaks and the second gets in the way, so the choice is which cost you would rather pay.

What are the three Web Content options?

On iOS 26 they sit at Settings, Screen Time, Content & Privacy Restrictions, App Store, Media, Web, & Games, Web Content (iPhone User Guide).

• Unrestricted. No filtering.
• Limit Adult Websites. Apple describes it as allowing “access to all websites except detected adult websites” (Apple). You can add sites it misses under Never Allow.
• Only Approved Websites. Only the sites on your list load.

Apple reorganised Screen Time in iOS 27. Its updated guide, written for a child’s device, puts these options under Apps & Websites, Restrictions, Filtering, and renames the strict one Approved Websites Only. Apple turns it on by default for child accounts under 13, and Limit Adult Websites for those under 18 (Apple).

What does Limit Adult Websites miss?

Anything it does not detect. Apple does not publish how detection works, and new or small sites get through. You fix those one at a time under Never Allow. It also checks websites only, so a video inside an app’s feed is out of its reach. The common causes and fixes are in Limit Adult Websites not working.

When does Only Approved Websites make sense?

• The sites you need are few and predictable: work, bank, maps, a handful of others.
• You keep finding sites Limit Adult Websites misses, and adding them one by one has not held.
• You want a stricter setting for a fixed stretch and plan to step down to Limit Adult Websites after it.

What does Only Approved Websites cost?

1. Every new site has to be added before it loads. Adding one changes Screen Time settings, which needs the Screen Time passcode once one is set. If someone else holds it, you ask them each time.
2. Search results become mostly blocked pages. Links in messages and emails lead to the same place.
3. Many pages pull sign-in, payments or video from other addresses. Those can fail until each address is added too.
4. Apps are untouched. Like the other options, it filters websites, not what an app shows inside itself.

If you hold the passcode yourself, the strict setting costs you four digits per new site and stops nothing you are set on reaching. Who holds it matters more than which option you choose, and that is covered in how to make Screen Time hard to turn off.

Which one should you choose?

For most people, Limit Adult Websites with a Never Allow list, a Screen Time passcode someone else holds, and the apps where it usually starts blocked or deleted. Only Approved Websites suits a phone used for a short, fixed list of sites.

Both are free and built in, as covered in can you block porn on an iPhone for free. The setup steps are in how to block porn on an iPhone, and the comparison with other kinds of blocker is in system filter vs DNS vs app blocker.