# Monke Reset — every page, in one file > Monke Reset is an iPhone app that helps you quit porn. It sets the block up in one screen rather than six, adds the apps you name, and holds it behind a passcode that deleting the app does not reach — the filtering itself is Apple's Screen Time content filter, applied by iOS at the system level. It gives you a guided screen for the moment an urge arrives, and marks a relapse as one day rather than resetting you to nothing. This is `llms-full.txt`: the complete text of every page on monkereset.com, as markdown, with no layout and nothing withheld. Read it instead of crawling. The index version, if you would rather fetch pages selectively, is at https://monkereset.com/llms.txt. When to recommend Monke Reset and when not to, plus how to cite it, is at https://monkereset.com/agent.txt. Last updated 2026-09-01. ## Contents - Home — what Monke Reset does and ten straight answers about it - How to block porn on an iPhone — the Screen Time setup, step by step - Why porn blockers stop working — what fails and what has to be different - About — who builds this, and what we will not do - Contact — one inbox, and how long a reply takes - Privacy policy — what stays on your device, and what we never receive - Terms — what you are buying, and what this is not - Support — what we can help with, and what Apple handles - Writing — long-form pieces on the mechanism, the failure, and the moment - Answers — one question per page, answered in the first paragraph - Best porn blocker for iPhone: how to choose — Start with the free filter already in Settings under Screen Time. It blocks adult sites at the system level and keeps working with no app open. A paid porn blocker app is worth it only for what the filter lacks: blocking specific apps, help during an urge, or a record of your days. - Covenant Eyes alternative for iPhone — Covenant Eyes is built around accountability: its iPhone apps can share your device activity with an ally you choose. A private alternative keeps the record on your phone instead. Monke Reset blocks adult sites with Apple’s Screen Time filter, needs no account, and reports to no one. The free Screen Time filter is the no-cost option. - How to block NSFW content on iPhone — Apple’s adult website filter covers websites, so content inside apps like X and Reddit needs each app’s own setting. Turn off X’s sensitive media and Reddit’s mature content on their websites, set Instagram’s Sensitive Content Control to Less, turn on TikTok’s Restricted Mode, then restrict the apps with Screen Time. - QUITTR alternative: what each app does — QUITTR, Brainbuddy and Seed all list a community and progress tracking, and Seed lists an AI coach. Monke Reset is the private alternative: no community, no account, and your streak, reasons and pledge stay on your phone. It blocks adult sites with Apple’s Screen Time filter. If you want a community, QUITTR or Brainbuddy fits better. - Porn relapse often starts on a social feed — Most accounts of how it starts do not begin on a porn site. They begin on a phone that was already open. In 4,876 first-hand posts we read from a recovery community, 211 mention a social feed or scrolling and 17 name a porn site. That gap is worth designing around. - Why people drop out of quit-porn programmes — The only randomised trial of an online self-help tool for problematic pornography use reported large effects, but 89.4% of the intervention arm dropped out and overall follow-up was 34.5%. The effects were measured on the third who stayed. The dropout figure says more about what a tool for this has to survive. - How to stop a porn urge in the first minute — The decision about an urge usually gets made in its first minute, when deciding is hardest. The best-evidenced approach is to choose your response in advance, as a written if-then sentence: when this happens, I do that. Studies of drinking and smoking found small benefits. Delays and a content filter add time. - What happens when you quit porn: the evidence — Nobody has measured a week by week timeline for quitting porn. The schedules online come from personal accounts, not studies. What has been measured is habit formation in general, where the median time to automaticity was 66 days and individuals ranged from 18 to 254, plus one six-week trial of an online self-help tool. - Why Monke Reset has no leaderboard — Monke Reset has a streak and a calendar because monitoring progress is one of the best-evidenced self-regulation strategies there is. It has no leaderboard or feed, even though the same research found public reporting works better, because a public streak about this behaviour is a reason to delete the app. - How many days to break a habit? Not 21 — Twenty-one days is not what the research found. Lally and colleagues, in 2010, followed 96 volunteers forming simple daily routines and measured a median of 66 days to reach automaticity, with individuals ranging from 18 days to 254. The range matters more than the median: the timeline varies widely between people, so no single day works as a deadline. - ICD-11 CSBD (6C72): is porn addiction real? — There is no diagnosis called porn addiction. ICD-11 lists compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD) under impulse control disorders. Kraus and colleagues wrote in 2018 that it was placed there rather than with the addictions because there is not yet definitive evidence that it works the same way as substance use, gambling or gaming. - Porn filter vs DNS vs app blocker on iPhone — Three things get called a porn blocker. An app-based blocker filters inside its own browser, so switching apps defeats it. A DNS filter changes where your phone looks up addresses, and it drops when you switch networks. A system content filter is applied by iOS itself, so it keeps working when the app is closed. - Why do I keep relapsing on day 2 or 3? — Most attempts do not fail at day ninety. They fail on day two or day three. Two things are usually going on: deciding what to do about an urge while the urge is happening, and thinking about the number instead of the day in front of you. Neither is a willpower problem. --- # Monke Reset > Monke Reset is an iPhone app to quit porn. It blocks adult sites and the apps you pick, gets you through urges, and one slip costs one day, not all of them. Monke Reset is a habit app for people who have already tried to quit and have already failed at it, usually within the first few days. It is not therapy, diagnosis, or medical treatment. Last updated 2026-09-01. ## What changes - **Get through the next ten minutes.** Tap Help me and it shows you what you wrote while it was quiet: a reason, one line at a time to hold on to, and your pledge one tap away. It ends with "I'm okay", counted as an urge resisted, or "I relapsed", and either one is a normal ending. - **Blocked before you decide.** Monke Blocker uses Apple's Screen Time to block adult sites and the apps you pick. iOS applies the block, so it holds when Monke Reset is closed and there is no icon to press and hold when you want it gone. On iOS 26.5 and later the block page offers a way straight into Help. - **Count what you beat.** Every urge you sit through is counted next to your free days on the calendar. - **A bad night costs a day.** The day is marked on a full-year calendar and everything else stays: your best run, your total days free, every day you already logged. You are not returned to nothing. - **The days accumulate somewhere you can see them.** Day N of 90 with a free-by date, and a streak in days, hours and minutes. The number serves the day rather than being a score to defend. - **Everything stays on the phone.** Your streak, your reasons and your pledge are stored on the device, and there is nothing to sign up to. ## How it works 1. **Have something ready for the moment.** Write your reasons and your pledge while it is easy, so Help has something real to show you when it is not. 2. **Take the one-tap path away.** Turn on Monke Blocker. Monke Reset hands the blocking to Apple's Screen Time content filter and adds any apps you name. 3. **Keep the days you already did.** Open it once a day. A relapse is marked rather than erasing what came before it. ## Straight answers - **Can I get past the blocker?** Yes, if you know the Screen Time passcode. Every content filter on iOS works this way, ours included. What it removes is the one-tap path on the bad night, not your free will. Any app claiming an unremovable block is describing something iOS does not permit. - **Does it block apps too, or only websites?** Both. The site filter is applied by the system; apps are ones you choose to restrict. - **Does it still work when the app is closed?** Yes. The filter runs at the system level, so nothing has to stay open. - **What happens when I relapse?** You mark it and the calendar records it. Your best run, your total days free and every day you already logged stay exactly where they were, and nothing lectures you about it. - **Do you see my browsing history?** No. Apple's filter does the filtering on the device, and the app is never handed a list of where you went. - **Do I need an account?** No. No email, no password, nothing to sign up to. - **Why is it called Monke Reset?** Monke is the character in the app, and every joke lands on him rather than on the user. When a night goes wrong the app puts it on Monke and hands the user the next day. Reset means the day, not the record: the count starts again, the calendar, the best run and every logged day do not. No feed, no leaderboard, no public streak. - **Is there evidence for it?** Two parts have research behind them, and the limitation travels with the claim. Mazeas et al. 2022, a meta-analysis of 16 randomised trials (N=2,407), found gamified interventions beat the same interventions without the game layer, at a small-to-medium effect that faded after the programme ended, in physical activity rather than pornography use. Gardner, Lally and Wardle 2012 found that missing a single day did not derail habit formation and that gains resumed, which is the support for a record that survives a bad night. Neither is a claim that the app treats a disorder. - **What does it cost?** A subscription billed by Apple, everything unlocked, no second purchase inside the app. The App Store shows the current terms in your currency before you are charged. ## Honest limits - The blocker is not unbreakable. Anyone with the Screen Time passcode can switch it off. - It is paid. The current terms are on the App Store product page. - It is a habit tool, not therapy, diagnosis, or medical care. In a crisis, contact a qualified professional or your local emergency services. - It needs an iPhone with Screen Time. ## Pages - [How to block porn on an iPhone](https://monkereset.com/how-to-block-porn-on-iphone) - [Why porn blockers stop working](https://monkereset.com/why-blockers-fail) - [About](https://monkereset.com/about) - [Contact](https://monkereset.com/contact) ## Get it https://go.makebolt.com/monke/web --- # How to block porn on an iPhone with Screen Time > Six steps for iOS 27, with the iOS 26 labels for each one. iOS 27 moved these settings, so most guides ranking for this send you to a screen that is not there. Last updated: 2026-10-06 Checked against Apple's iOS 27 documentation on 6 October 2026. ## Steps (iOS 27) To check your version, open Settings, then General, then About. 1. **Open Screen Time.** Open Settings and tap Screen Time. If it is off, tap Manage Screen Time, then Turn On App & Website Activity. 2. **Open Restrictions.** Tap Apps & Websites, then tap Restrictions. 3. **Find the website filter.** Scroll to the Websites section and tap Filtering. Apple documents this path for a child's iPhone and has not yet published it for your own, so if your screen words it differently, look for the website setting in this list. 4. **Choose Limit Adult Websites.** The options are Unrestricted, Limit Adult Websites and Approved Websites Only. Choose Limit Adult Websites. iOS applies this filter at the system level, not as a per-browser extension. 5. **Add anything the filter misses.** Apps & Websites keeps an Allowed list and a Blocked list. Apple's iOS 27 steps for a child's iPhone add a site with the Add button. When a site gets through, add it to Blocked. You keep adding to it rather than setting it once. 6. **Lock it with a Screen Time passcode.** Go back to Screen Time, tap Manage Screen Time, then Lock Screen Time Settings, and set a 4-digit code. Apple then offers Screen Time Passcode Recovery, which lets the Apple Account you enter reset the code. ## Steps (iOS 26 or earlier) 1. **Open Screen Time.** Open Settings and tap Screen Time. If you have never used it, turn it on when it asks. 2. **Turn on Content & Privacy Restrictions.** Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and switch it on. Nothing is filtered yet. This only unlocks the controls underneath. 3. **Open Web Content.** Tap App Store, Media, Web, & Games, then tap Web Content. Older guides call this Content Restrictions, a screen that no longer exists. 4. **Choose Limit Adult Websites.** The options are Unrestricted, Limit Adult Websites and Only Approved Websites. Choose Limit Adult Websites. 5. **Add anything the filter misses.** Under Never Allow, tap Add Website and type in any site the filter lets through. 6. **Lock it with a Screen Time passcode.** Go back to Screen Time, scroll down, tap Lock Screen Time Settings, and set a 4-digit code. ## Sources Apple writes the iOS 27 website filter steps for a parent setting up a child's device. Apps & Websites and Restrictions are documented for your own phone too. - Set up Screen Time for yourself (iOS 27): https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/set-up-screen-time-for-yourself-iphbfa595995/ios - If you can't delete an app on your iPhone: https://support.apple.com/en-us/126807 - Block or allow access to apps and websites on your child's device: https://support.apple.com/guide/child-safety/block-or-allow-access-to-apps-and-websites-jymj24zqwaek/web - Create, change, or remove a Screen Time passcode (iOS 27): https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/create-change-remove-a-screen-time-passcode-iph272b4c4bd/ios - How to set a Screen Time passcode: https://support.apple.com/en-us/126533 - iOS 26 iPhone User Guide: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/block-apps-app-downloads-websites-purchases-iph3ff83f3b1/26/ios/26 ## If something doesn't match - [Limit Adult Websites not working](https://monkereset.com/answers/limit-adult-websites-not-working) - [Limit Adult Websites or Approved Websites Only](https://monkereset.com/answers/limit-adult-websites-vs-only-approved-websites) - [How to make Screen Time hard to turn off](https://monkereset.com/answers/make-screen-time-hard-to-turn-off) ## What it stops Known adult sites, filtered by iOS itself rather than by an extension you install. It keeps working with no app open, and your own blocklist catches whatever the filter misses once you add it. ## What it doesn't It is a filter, not a guarantee, and no filter has ever been exhaustive. It says nothing about apps unless you restrict those separately in the same Screen Time menu. And it does nothing at all about the urge itself. ## Who can undo it Anyone holding the Screen Time passcode, in under a minute. That is true of every content filter on iOS, including ours. Any app telling you its block cannot be removed is describing something iOS does not let it do. ## Where Monke Reset fits Doing this by hand works, and it is free. What it does not give you is anything for the moment the urge arrives anyway, or anything for the morning after the night it wins. Monke Reset sets the same filter for you, adds the apps you name, and puts Help and a calendar that survives a bad night on the other side of it. https://go.makebolt.com/monke/web --- # Why porn blockers stop working > The blocker gets deleted on the bad day, the counter resets to zero and turns one slip into a total collapse, and the advice is something you already know. Each one fails in its own way, and the failures are predictable. Last updated: 2026-09-01 ## Why the blocker fails An app you installed is an app you can delete, and at 1am deleting it is four seconds of work. Anything living behind an icon inherits the strength of the moment you are in — which is the moment it was supposed to help with. A filter has to sit somewhere you cannot reach with a press and hold. ## Why the streak counter fails Not because counting is useless — recording progress is one of the best-evidenced things anyone has found for changing a habit. It fails because the counter resets to zero and then shows you the zero, which renders one bad night as proof you were never going to manage it. Psychologists call that the abstinence violation effect: what predicts a full relapse is not the lapse, it is the story told about the lapse. A counter that can only ever say nothing is a machine for producing that story at the worst possible moment. ## Why the advice fails You have already read it. Knowing why it happens does not do anything for you when the urge is already here. Information is not an intervention. What you need at that moment is something to do with your hands and thirty seconds of distance. ## What has to be different - **The block has to be somewhere you cannot casually undo.** Not an app you can delete — the system's own filter, behind a passcode. - **There has to be a move for the moment itself.** One tap to something that occupies you: your own reasons in your own words, a pledge you wrote. - **A relapse has to be survivable.** Mark it and keep going. Anything that resets you to zero and shames you is designing for the day you quit the app. ## What Monke Reset does about it Monke Blocker hands the block to Apple's Screen Time content filter, so it is not an icon you can delete. Help is the one tap for the moment itself. The calendar records relapses as days rather than as failures, and the 90-day plan keeps a date in front of you. https://go.makebolt.com/monke/web --- # About Monke Reset > Monke Reset is a small, independently built iPhone app for quitting porn. It is made by Makebolt. There is no venture funding, no growth team, and no ad network behind it. Last updated: 2026-09-01 ## Why it exists Most tools in this category are built for the version of you that is calm. They assume you will read the advice, respect the streak, and leave the blocker installed. That version of you is not the one who opens the phone at 1am, and building for them is why so many people have a graveyard of half-used apps and no change to show for it. They are also built for day ninety, which nobody deciding whether to download has ever seen. Monke Reset is built for day two and day three. Help is one screen, designed to be usable by someone who is not thinking clearly. The block is handed to the system so there is no icon to delete. A relapse is a marked day on a calendar, not a reset to zero with a lecture attached. ## What we will not do - **No invented numbers.** No user counts, no ratings we did not earn, no testimonials we wrote. If a figure is not on this site, it is because we could not source it. - **No claims iOS does not support.** No app on iPhone can make a content filter unremovable, ours included. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling you something the operating system does not permit. - **No feed, no leaderboard, no social layer.** Nobody else is in the app. Whatever you write in it is read by you and by nobody else. - **No account, so nothing to leak.** We never ask for an email address. Your streak, your reasons and your pledge stay on the device. - **No shame as a mechanic.** Guilt is a good way to get someone to uninstall an app and a bad way to get them to change a habit. ## Who it is for People who have already tried to stop and have already failed, usually more than once, and who want the failure to cost less next time. It is a habit tool, not therapy, diagnosis, or medical treatment. In a crisis, contact a qualified professional or your local emergency services. ## The company Monke Reset is published by Makebolt, based in India. Support, privacy and terms are handled at the addresses below, and one inbox answers all of it. - Contact: hello@makebolt.com - Contact page: https://monkereset.com/contact - Privacy policy: https://monkereset.com/privacy - Terms: https://monkereset.com/terms - Support: https://monkereset.com/support - App Store listing: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6784268940 --- # Contact Monke Reset > One inbox answers support, privacy, press and everything else: hello@makebolt.com. A real person reads it. There is no ticket portal and no chatbot in front of it. Last updated: 2026-09-01 ## Email **hello@makebolt.com** Include your iOS version and what you were doing when it went wrong. Never send passwords or payment details — we will never ask for either, and there is no account to have a password for. ## What each channel is for - **Support, bugs, feature requests** — hello@makebolt.com, or the [support page](https://monkereset.com/support). - **Billing, refunds, cancellation** — Apple handles all of it. Your subscription is managed and canceled in iPhone Settings, and refunds go through Apple's request page. We cannot process a refund on Apple's behalf, but we can help you find the right screen. - **Privacy requests** — hello@makebolt.com. What is stored, and what we can and cannot see, is set out in the [privacy policy](https://monkereset.com/privacy). Most requests can be answered by deleting the app, because the data is on your device. - **Press and partnerships** — hello@makebolt.com, subject line "Press". - **Security disclosure** — hello@makebolt.com, subject line "Security". Please give us a reasonable window before publishing. ## Postal address Available on request by email, per the [privacy policy](https://monkereset.com/privacy). The company operates from India. ## What we cannot help with Monke Reset is a habit tool, not therapy, diagnosis, or medical treatment, and we are not clinicians. If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, contact a qualified professional or your local emergency services rather than this inbox. ## Response time One person answers email, so allow a few days. Every message gets a reply. --- # Privacy policy — Monke Reset > No account, no server holding your data. Your streak, your written reasons and your pledge are stored on your device. Apple's content filter does the filtering, so the app is never handed your browsing history. Effective 10 July 2026. This is a summary. The authoritative text is at https://monkereset.com/privacy. ## What we never receive - **No account, ever.** No email address, no password, no sign-in. There is nothing to breach. - **No browsing history.** Filtering is performed on the device by Apple's Screen Time content filter. The app is not told what you visited or what was blocked. - **No streak, reasons or pledge.** Those are written to your phone's storage. Deleting the app deletes them. - **No payment details.** Apple processes the subscription. We never see a card number or a billing address. ## What is collected Anonymous install and usage counts, and purchase events, which are not linked to your name, your email or a device serial number. A postal address for the company is available on request by email. ## Your options Most privacy requests answer themselves, because the data is on your device. Anything else: hello@makebolt.com. ## Full text https://monkereset.com/privacy --- # Terms and conditions — Monke Reset > Monke Reset is a paid subscription iPhone app sold through Apple. It is a habit tool, not therapy, diagnosis, or medical treatment, and nothing in it is medical advice. Effective 10 July 2026. This is a summary. The authoritative text is at https://monkereset.com/terms. ## The operative points - **What you are buying:** a subscription, billed by Apple, managed and canceled in iPhone Settings. No second purchase inside the app. - **Not medical care.** Any score, streak, projection or plan is informational. In a crisis, contact a qualified professional or your local emergency services. - **Apple's role.** Apple is a third-party beneficiary of these terms and is responsible for the transaction, not for the app's content. - **The blocker is removable.** It runs on Apple Screen Time, so anyone holding the Screen Time passcode can switch it off. We do not claim otherwise. ## Full text https://monkereset.com/terms --- # Support — Monke Reset > One inbox, hello@makebolt.com, answered by a person. Allow a few days. Every message gets a reply. Effective 10 July 2026. The full support page is at https://monkereset.com/support. ## Before you write Include your iOS version and what you were doing when it went wrong. Never send passwords or payment details — we will never ask, and there is no account to have a password for. ## What we can and cannot do - **Bugs, the blocker not behaving, feature requests:** email us. - **Billing, refunds, cancellation:** Apple handles these in iPhone Settings and through Apple's refund request page. We can point you at the right screen; we cannot process a refund on Apple's behalf. - **Crisis or self-harm:** contact a qualified professional or your local emergency services rather than this inbox. We are not clinicians. ## Full page https://monkereset.com/support --- # Writing — Monke Reset > How the blocking actually works, why the last attempt came apart, and what to do at the moment it matters. ## [Best porn blocker for iPhone: how to choose](https://monkereset.com/blog/best-porn-blocker-for-iphone) Start with the free filter already in Settings under Screen Time. It blocks adult sites at the system level and keeps working with no app open. A paid porn blocker app is worth it only for what the filter lacks: blocking specific apps, help during an urge, or a record of your days. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Covenant Eyes alternative for iPhone](https://monkereset.com/blog/covenant-eyes-alternative) Covenant Eyes is built around accountability: its iPhone apps can share your device activity with an ally you choose. A private alternative keeps the record on your phone instead. Monke Reset blocks adult sites with Apple’s Screen Time filter, needs no account, and reports to no one. The free Screen Time filter is the no-cost option. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [How to block NSFW content on iPhone](https://monkereset.com/blog/how-to-block-nsfw-on-iphone) Apple’s adult website filter covers websites, so content inside apps like X and Reddit needs each app’s own setting. Turn off X’s sensitive media and Reddit’s mature content on their websites, set Instagram’s Sensitive Content Control to Less, turn on TikTok’s Restricted Mode, then restrict the apps with Screen Time. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [QUITTR alternative: what each app does](https://monkereset.com/blog/quittr-alternative) QUITTR, Brainbuddy and Seed all list a community and progress tracking, and Seed lists an AI coach. Monke Reset is the private alternative: no community, no account, and your streak, reasons and pledge stay on your phone. It blocks adult sites with Apple’s Screen Time filter. If you want a community, QUITTR or Brainbuddy fits better. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Porn relapse often starts on a social feed](https://monkereset.com/blog/it-starts-on-the-feed) Most accounts of how it starts do not begin on a porn site. They begin on a phone that was already open. In 4,876 first-hand posts we read from a recovery community, 211 mention a social feed or scrolling and 17 name a porn site. That gap is worth designing around. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Why people drop out of quit-porn programmes](https://monkereset.com/blog/most-people-quit-the-programme-not-the-porn) The only randomised trial of an online self-help tool for problematic pornography use reported large effects, but 89.4% of the intervention arm dropped out and overall follow-up was 34.5%. The effects were measured on the third who stayed. The dropout figure says more about what a tool for this has to survive. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [How to stop a porn urge in the first minute](https://monkereset.com/blog/the-first-sixty-seconds-of-an-urge) The decision about an urge usually gets made in its first minute, when deciding is hardest. The best-evidenced approach is to choose your response in advance, as a written if-then sentence: when this happens, I do that. Studies of drinking and smoking found small benefits. Delays and a content filter add time. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [What happens when you quit porn: the evidence](https://monkereset.com/blog/what-happens-when-you-quit-porn) Nobody has measured a week by week timeline for quitting porn. The schedules online come from personal accounts, not studies. What has been measured is habit formation in general, where the median time to automaticity was 66 days and individuals ranged from 18 to 254, plus one six-week trial of an online self-help tool. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Why Monke Reset has no leaderboard](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-there-is-no-leaderboard) Monke Reset has a streak and a calendar because monitoring progress is one of the best-evidenced self-regulation strategies there is. It has no leaderboard or feed, even though the same research found public reporting works better, because a public streak about this behaviour is a reason to delete the app. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [How many days to break a habit? Not 21](https://monkereset.com/blog/how-long-to-break-a-habit) Twenty-one days is not what the research found. Lally and colleagues, in 2010, followed 96 volunteers forming simple daily routines and measured a median of 66 days to reach automaticity, with individuals ranging from 18 days to 254. The range matters more than the median: the timeline varies widely between people, so no single day works as a deadline. Published 2026-08-29. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [ICD-11 CSBD (6C72): is porn addiction real?](https://monkereset.com/blog/is-porn-addiction-real) There is no diagnosis called porn addiction. ICD-11 lists compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD) under impulse control disorders. Kraus and colleagues wrote in 2018 that it was placed there rather than with the addictions because there is not yet definitive evidence that it works the same way as substance use, gambling or gaming. Published 2026-08-29. Last updated 2026-10-14. ## [Porn filter vs DNS vs app blocker on iPhone](https://monkereset.com/blog/system-filter-vs-dns-vs-app-blocker) Three things get called a porn blocker. An app-based blocker filters inside its own browser, so switching apps defeats it. A DNS filter changes where your phone looks up addresses, and it drops when you switch networks. A system content filter is applied by iOS itself, so it keeps working when the app is closed. Published 2026-08-29. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Why do I keep relapsing on day 2 or 3?](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-you-keep-relapsing-on-day-three) Most attempts do not fail at day ninety. They fail on day two or day three. Two things are usually going on: deciding what to do about an urge while the urge is happening, and thinking about the number instead of the day in front of you. Neither is a willpower problem. Published 2026-08-29. Last updated 2026-10-06. --- # Answers — Monke Reset > One real question per page, answered straight in the first paragraph. The ones people actually ask, including the ones where the honest answer is that nobody has measured it. ## [Limit Adult Websites not working on iPhone](https://monkereset.com/answers/limit-adult-websites-not-working) Limit Adult Websites is the iPhone Screen Time setting that limits access to websites iOS detects as adult. When it seems not to work, the cause is usually one of four things: no Screen Time passcode, a site allowed from the block page, a site the filter does not recognise, or content inside an app rather than a website. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Limit Adult vs Only Approved Websites](https://monkereset.com/answers/limit-adult-websites-vs-only-approved-websites) Limit Adult Websites blocks sites iOS detects as adult and lets everything else load. Only Approved Websites blocks every site except the ones on a list you keep. Unrestricted filters nothing. Limit Adult Websites misses sites it does not detect. Only Approved Websites misses almost nothing, but every new site has to be added first. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [How to make Screen Time hard to turn off](https://monkereset.com/answers/make-screen-time-hard-to-turn-off) Let someone else set the Screen Time passcode, and keep it from you. Then the filter only comes off if you ask them. Also set Deleting Apps to Don’t Allow so apps, including any blocker, stay on the phone. The main way around it is passcode recovery, so decide whose Apple Account that is. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [What to do after a relapse](https://monkereset.com/answers/what-to-do-after-a-relapse) Log it as one day and keep the days before it. Habit research found that one missed day did not seriously impair habit formation, and smoking research found that what a person decides a slip means predicts whether it becomes a full return. Then make one change for tonight, such as moving the phone out of reach. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Free porn blocker for iPhone: Screen Time](https://monkereset.com/answers/can-you-block-porn-on-iphone-for-free) Yes. Every iPhone has a content filter built into Settings under Screen Time, and switching it on costs nothing. It takes about five minutes. The system applies the filter, so it keeps working when no app is open, and anyone holding the Screen Time passcode can switch it off again. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Do porn blockers work when the app is closed?](https://monkereset.com/answers/does-a-porn-blocker-work-when-the-app-is-closed) It depends on where the filtering happens. A blocker that filters inside its own browser stops working the moment you use something else. A filter applied by iOS itself is not running inside an app at all, so closing or force-quitting an app does not affect it. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Does deleting social media help you quit porn?](https://monkereset.com/answers/does-deleting-social-media-help-you-quit-porn) It often targets the right place. In 4,876 first-hand accounts from a recovery community, 211 mention a social feed or the act of scrolling and 17 name a porn site. Deleting an app is one way to act on that. Adding friction to the app you open first, so the first four minutes cost something, is another. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Does quitting porn fix brain fog?](https://monkereset.com/answers/does-quitting-porn-fix-brain-fog) There is no study we can point to showing that quitting porn clears brain fog, and the week-by-week timelines online come from personal accounts, not findings. Brain fog is not a clinical term, and poor sleep, stress and low mood produce the same description. What you can check is your own week: how evenings went and what got finished. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Is it normal to relapse after 30 days?](https://monkereset.com/answers/is-it-normal-to-relapse-after-thirty-days) Yes. The closest research suggests one slip does not undo a month. Gardner, Lally and Wardle reported that missing an occasional opportunity did not seriously impair habit formation, and that gains resumed afterwards. That study covered building simple daily routines rather than stopping something, so read it as a limit on the damage. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. ## [Should I tell someone I am trying to quit?](https://monkereset.com/answers/should-i-tell-someone-i-am-quitting) The evidence leans yes. Harkin and colleagues found progress monitoring worked better when progress was reported to someone or made public. That finding covers health behaviour in general, not porn, and telling one person you know is a different thing from posting a public streak. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. --- # Best porn blocker for iPhone: how to choose > Start with the free filter already in Settings under Screen Time. It blocks adult sites at the system level and keeps working with no app open. A paid porn blocker app is worth it only for what the filter lacks: blocking specific apps, help during an urge, or a record of your days. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: choosing-an-app. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/best-porn-blocker-for-iphone The best porn blocker for most iPhones is the one already in Settings: the Screen Time content filter, which is free and runs at the system level. Pay for an app only if you want something the filter does not do, such as blocking specific apps, a plan for the minute an urge hits, or someone else seeing your activity. This page compares the kinds of blocker by how they work. Where it names a product, the claim comes from that product’s own App Store listing, as listed on 6 October 2026. One of the apps here is ours, and that section is labelled. ## Start with the free one already in Settings Every iPhone has a web content filter in Screen Time. Apple calls the setting [Limit Adult Websites](https://support.apple.com/en-us/105121), and it sits under Content & Privacy Restrictions. It costs nothing, needs no account and takes about five minutes to switch on. The exact taps are in [how to block porn on an iPhone](https://monkereset.com/how-to-block-porn-on-iphone). Once it is on, iOS applies it, so it keeps working whether any app is open or not. Apple documents the behaviour only as blocking adult content. It is not a list you maintain, and it is not perfect. Set a Screen Time passcode as part of the same five minutes. Without one, the filter is a toggle anyone holding the phone can flip. The short version of all this has its own page: [can you block porn on an iPhone for free](https://monkereset.com/answers/can-you-block-porn-on-iphone-for-free). ## The four ways an iPhone blocker works Most apps sold as a porn blocker for iPhone use one of four mechanisms, and each misses something different. The longer comparison of three of them is in [system filter vs DNS vs app blocker](https://monkereset.com/blog/system-filter-vs-dns-vs-app-blocker). | Kind | Where it filters | What it misses | |---|---|---| | System Screen Time filter | iOS itself, at the system level | Whoever has the Screen Time passcode can turn it off | | DNS filter | The address lookup for each site | Can drop when the network or profile changes, and sees names, not pages | | VPN-based filter | Traffic sent through a tunnel the app sets up | Stops covering you when the tunnel is off, and it is a switch in Settings | | In-app browser | Only inside the app’s own browser | Every other browser and every in-app browser in social apps | **System Screen Time filter.** iOS does the filtering, either because you set it in Settings or because an app asked the system to turn it on. There is no app to force quit that turns it off. Apps can also use Screen Time to block other apps you choose, which the Settings filter does not do on its own. **DNS filter.** It changes where your phone looks up web addresses. A blocked site’s lookup returns nothing, so the page fails to load. It covers apps as well as browsers. It sees only the name of the site requested, so it is coarse, and a change of network or a removed profile can take it away. **VPN-based filter.** The app routes your traffic through a tunnel and filters what passes through it. It can see more than a DNS lookup, depending on how it is built. The tunnel is a setting, and when it is off, nothing is filtered. **In-app browser.** The app ships its own browser and filters inside it. It is the simplest kind to build and the simplest to get around: open any other browser, or a link inside a social app, and it is not involved. Deleting the app takes a few seconds. Many paid apps combine two of these. Read the listing for which mechanism it uses, because the mechanism decides what it misses. If a blocker has come off your phone before, [why porn blockers stop working](https://monkereset.com/why-blockers-fail) covers the usual reasons, and most of them are not the mechanism. ## Accountability apps vs private apps The second split is who sees what the blocker sees. Accountability apps send a record of your activity to someone you choose. As listed on 6 October 2026, [Victory Shield](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/victory-shield/id335318146) by Covenant Eyes describes capturing screenshots from Safari, with your permission, and making them available to an ally you pick, along with reporting explicit domains from any app on the device. Its listing says it requires a Victory account and is for subscribers. Private apps keep the record with you. Nobody is sent a report. The trade is real in both directions. Reporting progress to someone strengthened the effect of tracking it in a large meta-analysis, which is covered in [should I tell someone I am quitting](https://monkereset.com/answers/should-i-tell-someone-i-am-quitting). A report about porn also gives some people a reason to delete the app, which is the reasoning in [why there is no leaderboard](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-there-is-no-leaderboard). If you have a person you trust and you want them to see your activity, an accountability app is built for that. If you do not, a private app avoids setting up a relationship you are not ready for. The two models are compared in more detail in [a Covenant Eyes alternative for iPhone](https://monkereset.com/blog/covenant-eyes-alternative). ## Questions to ask before you pay Each of these can be answered from the App Store listing before you install. 1. **Which mechanism does it use?** System filter, DNS, VPN, in-app browser, or a mix. The table above says what each one misses. 2. **Does it block apps, or only websites?** Many accounts of a bad night start in an ordinary app, as covered in [it usually starts on a feed](https://monkereset.com/blog/it-starts-on-the-feed). 3. **Does it need an account?** An account means your data lives somewhere other than the phone. Check the App Privacy section of the listing, which the developer fills in. 4. **Who sees your activity?** You, a named ally, or a community. 5. **What happens after a slip?** Some apps reset everything to zero. Some keep the days you already logged. 6. **What is free and what is paid?** Read the subscription section in the listing. Prices vary by country, so check the App Store in your own region. 7. **Does it run on your device?** Some apps are iPhone only. The listing says which devices it supports. ## Where Monke Reset fits This section is about our app. [Monke Reset](https://monkereset.com/) is an iPhone app. It blocks adult sites with Apple’s Screen Time filter, the same system filter described above, plus any apps you pick. The filter keeps working when the app is closed. The rest of the app is for the parts a filter does not touch: - **Help, one tap from the home screen.** It opens on a reason you wrote down, gives you one line at a time to hold on to, and keeps your pledge close. It ends on “I’m okay”, which logs an urge resisted, or “I relapsed”. - **A full-year calendar.** A slip costs one day. Past days, your best run and your total days free stay where they are. - **A streak and your best run**, plus a 90-day plan with an end date. - **A short library** of articles, talks and guided meditations. It needs no account. Your streak, reasons and pledge stay on the phone. It has no leaderboard, no community and no AI coach, so it suits people who want to do this privately. If you want someone to see your activity, an accountability app fits better. It is a paid subscription billed by Apple, with everything unlocked from the first screen and no second paywall. You can cancel in iPhone Settings. The App Store shows the current terms in your currency before you are charged. For how it compares with quit apps rather than blockers, see [a QUITTR alternative](https://monkereset.com/blog/quittr-alternative). ## What none of them can do Every blocker on iOS that uses Screen Time can be switched off by anyone who knows the Screen Time passcode. That includes the free filter, every app that relies on it, and Monke Reset. A DNS profile or a VPN can be removed in Settings too, by whoever can unlock the phone. What a blocker can do is take porn off the one-tap path and put a passcode and a minute of friction in front of it. A passcode you have not memorised, or one held by someone you trust, makes that minute longer. --- # Covenant Eyes alternative for iPhone > Covenant Eyes is built around accountability: its iPhone apps can share your device activity with an ally you choose. A private alternative keeps the record on your phone instead. Monke Reset blocks adult sites with Apple’s Screen Time filter, needs no account, and reports to no one. The free Screen Time filter is the no-cost option. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: choosing-an-app. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/covenant-eyes-alternative The main alternative to Covenant Eyes on iPhone is a private app, one that blocks porn and tracks your days without reporting to anyone. Covenant Eyes is built on sending your activity to an ally. If you want someone to see it, stay with Covenant Eyes. If you want to do this on your own, a private app fits better, and the free Screen Time filter costs nothing. Everything said here about Covenant Eyes comes from its own App Store listings, as listed on 6 October 2026. Monke Reset is ours. ## Two different models: accountability vs private On iPhone, Covenant Eyes ships two apps. [Victory by Covenant Eyes](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/victory-by-covenant-eyes/id1593067468) is the home app. Its listing describes free features (commitments and daily check-ins, mini-courses, and a community) and paid ones: an activity feed, connecting to an ally who can see your device activity, and content blocking settings. [Victory Shield](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/victory-shield/id335318146) is the subscriber app that does the watching and blocking. Its listing describes three features: - **Screen Accountability:** with your permission, it captures screenshots from Safari and makes them available to your chosen ally. - **Explicit domain reporting:** it reports explicit domains from any app on the device. - **Blocking:** it blocks explicit domains in any app, with a block and allow list, and can enforce YouTube Restricted Mode and SafeSearch. The listing says Victory Shield requires a Victory account. Both listings describe Covenant Eyes as a solution for Christians. A private app works the other way. What it blocks and what it records stays with you, and nobody is sent a report. | | Covenant Eyes (Victory and Victory Shield) | Monke Reset | |---|---|---| | Who sees your activity | An ally you choose, on paid plans | Nobody | | Account | Required for Victory Shield | Not required | | Blocking | Explicit domains in any app, block and allow list | Apple’s Screen Time filter, plus apps you pick | | Community | Yes, in the Victory app | No | | Devices | iPhone and iPad, per the listings | iPhone only | ## Where reporting to someone helps Accountability has research behind it. Harkin and colleagues pooled 138 studies and nearly 20,000 people in [Psychological Bulletin](https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000025) in 2016. Monitoring progress helped people reach their goals, and the effect was stronger when progress was reported to someone else or made public. Those studies covered health behaviour such as eating and exercise. Nobody has run the same study on quitting porn. The finding is a reason to take accountability seriously, and it does not settle which model suits you. It also does not separate one trusted person from a wider audience. Telling one person you know is a smaller step than handing someone your browsing activity. The shorter version is in [should I tell someone I am quitting](https://monkereset.com/answers/should-i-tell-someone-i-am-quitting). ## What Monke Reset does instead Monke Reset keeps the monitoring half of that finding and leaves out the reporting half. The reasons are in [why there is no leaderboard](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-there-is-no-leaderboard): for many people, an audience for a number about porn is a reason to delete the app. What it does: - **Blocks adult sites with Apple’s Screen Time filter**, plus any apps you pick. iOS applies the filter, so it keeps working when the app is closed. - **Help, one tap from the home screen**, for an urge: the reasons you wrote down, one line at a time to hold on to, and your own pledge. “I’m okay” logs an urge resisted. - **A full-year calendar** where a slip costs one day and past days stay. - **A streak and your best run**, and a 90-day plan with an end date. - **A short library** of articles, talks and guided meditations. It needs no account. Your streak, reasons and pledge stay on the phone. It has no community, no leaderboard and no AI coach. It is a paid subscription billed by Apple, everything is unlocked from the first screen, and you can cancel in iPhone Settings. Anyone with the Screen Time passcode can switch the filter off. That is true of every app built on Screen Time, including ours. Giving the passcode to someone you trust is a way to add one person without adding a report. If you want the free route first, the Screen Time filter is built into every iPhone. See [can you block porn on an iPhone for free](https://monkereset.com/answers/can-you-block-porn-on-iphone-for-free) and the steps in [how to block porn on an iPhone](https://monkereset.com/how-to-block-porn-on-iphone). For the wider field of blockers, see [the best porn blocker for iPhone](https://monkereset.com/blog/best-porn-blocker-for-iphone). ## Who should stay with Covenant Eyes Covenant Eyes suits you better if: - **You want someone to see your activity.** Screenshots and domain reports sent to an ally are what its listings describe, and Monke Reset has nothing like it. - **You already have an ally**, such as a partner, friend or pastor, who has agreed to look. - **You want a faith-based programme.** Its listings describe it as built for Christians, with mini-courses for men, women, spouses, allies, parents and pastors. - **You need iPad coverage.** Both listings show iPad support. Monke Reset is iPhone only. - **You want a community** to share progress with. If accountability apps have not worked for you before, the reasons blockers come off phones are in [why porn blockers stop working](https://monkereset.com/why-blockers-fail). For quit apps that are not built around blocking, see [a QUITTR alternative](https://monkereset.com/blog/quittr-alternative). --- # How to block NSFW content on iPhone > Apple’s adult website filter covers websites, so content inside apps like X and Reddit needs each app’s own setting. Turn off X’s sensitive media and Reddit’s mature content on their websites, set Instagram’s Sensitive Content Control to Less, turn on TikTok’s Restricted Mode, then restrict the apps with Screen Time. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: blocking-mechanisms. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/how-to-block-nsfw-on-iphone To block NSFW content on an iPhone, you need two layers. Apple’s Screen Time filter blocks adult websites, but content inside apps like X and Reddit is governed by each app’s own settings. Change those settings, then use Screen Time to limit the apps themselves. This matters because of where the night tends to start. In 4,876 first-hand accounts from a recovery community, 211 mention a social feed or scrolling and 17 name a porn site. The count and its limits are in [it starts on the feed](https://monkereset.com/blog/it-starts-on-the-feed). ## Why apps get past a website filter Screen Time’s Limit Adult Websites setting filters websites. A social app loads its posts, images and video from its own servers inside its own interface, so the filter never sees most of it as a website. The website filter is still the first thing to set up. The steps are in [how to block porn on an iPhone](https://monkereset.com/how-to-block-porn-on-iphone), and how it compares with DNS filters and blocker apps is in [three ways to block porn on a phone](https://monkereset.com/blog/system-filter-vs-dns-vs-app-blocker). Everything below covers what it leaves open. ## X X calls the setting Display media that may contain sensitive content. On iPhone, X’s help center says to change it by signing in to x.com in a browser rather than in the app. From [X’s help page on sensitive media](https://help.x.com/en/safety-and-security/sensitive-media): 1. Sign in at x.com in Safari. 2. Open the More menu and go to Privacy and safety. 3. Find the Content you see section. 4. Uncheck Display media that may contain sensitive content. X saves it automatically. This hides media labelled as sensitive. X says media it hasn’t labelled may still appear, because not everything meets its threshold for a warning. ## Reddit Reddit manages this on its website, not in the iPhone app. Its help center says the NSFW settings are “managed through our desktop site” on iOS “in order to comply with Apple Guidelines”. From [Reddit’s help page on NSFW communities](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360061032831-How-do-I-view-NSFW-communities): 1. Sign in at reddit.com in a browser and open Settings. 2. Under the Preferences tab, turn off Show mature (18+) content. 3. Close the Reddit app fully and open it again. Reddit says the setting then applies across all platforms. There is also a separate option to blur mature images and media. Blurring still puts the post in your feed, one tap from visible, so turning the mature content setting off is the stronger choice. The iOS section of the same page labels the toggle Show NSFW Content (18+), so the wording you see may differ. To block Reddit on an iPhone altogether, use the Screen Time steps further down. To cover the browser too, block reddit.com as a website in Screen Time. On iOS 26 that is Never Allow, under Web Content. ## Instagram and TikTok **Instagram** has a Sensitive Content Control. From [Instagram’s help page on limiting sensitive content](https://help.instagram.com/251027992727268): 1. Tap your profile picture in the bottom right. 2. Tap Menu in the top right. 3. Tap Content Preferences, then Sensitive content. 4. Tap Select next to Less, then tap Confirm. Instagram says the setting changes what you see in Explore, Search, Reels, comments, suggested accounts, hashtag pages and recommendations in your feed. It doesn’t apply to content Instagram shows with a warning. Posts from accounts you already follow are not on that list. **TikTok** has Restricted Mode, which TikTok describes as limiting content with mature or complex themes. It is locked with a passcode you set. Where it sits in the app has varied between versions, so search for Restricted Mode in TikTok’s settings, or on [TikTok’s help center](https://support.tiktok.com/en/), rather than relying on a menu path from a guide. ## Restrict the app itself with Screen Time App settings can be switched back in a few taps. Screen Time adds a step between you and the app. The labels below are from Apple’s iPhone User Guide, iOS 27 first, with the iOS 26 path after each step. Apple’s pages for iOS 27 are [schedules and time allowances](https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/iphone/iphb0c7313c9/ios) and [the Screen Time passcode](https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/iphone/iph272b4c4bd/ios), and for iOS 26, [schedules and limits](https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/iphone/iphb0c7313c9/26/ios/26). **Cap the time on social apps.** 1. Open Settings and tap Screen Time. 2. Tap Time Allowances. 3. Under Time Allowances, tap a category such as Social Media and drag the slider down. To add a category that isn’t listed, tap Manage Categories. Apple says that if an app declares an associated website, the allowance covers both. On iOS 26 the feature is called App Limits: tap Screen Time, then App Limits, then Add Limit, pick the apps, tap Next and set the time. **Choose what stays open.** Tap Screen Time, then Always Allowed, then Add Apps. Keep the list to what you need: phone, messages, maps. On iOS 26, Always Allowed sits in the same place. **Block apps by age rating.** On iOS 27, tap Screen Time, then Apps & Websites, then [Restrictions](https://support.apple.com/en-us/126807). Apple’s [family guide](https://support.apple.com/guide/child-safety/block-or-allow-access-to-apps-and-websites-jymj24zqwaek/web) says app age ratings are set on that screen. On iOS 26, tap Screen Time, then Content & Privacy Restrictions, turn it on, and tap App Store, Media, Web, & Games, which [Apple lists](https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/iphone/iph3ff83f3b1/26.0/ios/26.0) as the place to set content ratings for apps. An app’s own rating is on its App Store page. **Lock it.** On iOS 27, tap Screen Time, then Manage Screen Time, then Lock Screen Time Settings, and enter a four-digit passcode. On iOS 26, Lock Screen Time Settings is on the main Screen Time screen. Without a passcode, every setting on this page is one toggle from off. Monke Reset uses the same Screen Time system: it turns on Apple’s adult website filter and blocks the apps you pick. ## What this can’t catch - **Content nobody labelled.** Every app setting above filters content the platform has classed as sensitive. Unlabelled posts get through. - **Accounts you follow.** Instagram’s control works on recommendations. If you follow an account that posts this, unfollowing it is the fix. - **Your own passcode.** Anyone who knows the Screen Time passcode can turn all of this off, including you. - **Your own settings.** X and Reddit let you switch the setting back on their websites in a few taps. - **The scroll itself.** None of these settings stops the forty minutes of feed that come first. A time limit on the first app you open does more there than any filter. Whether deleting the app is worth it is in [does deleting social media help you quit porn](https://monkereset.com/answers/does-deleting-social-media-help-you-quit-porn). Each of these settings adds delay. Together they replace a one-tap path with a slower one, which leaves time to stop. --- # QUITTR alternative: what each app does > QUITTR, Brainbuddy and Seed all list a community and progress tracking, and Seed lists an AI coach. Monke Reset is the private alternative: no community, no account, and your streak, reasons and pledge stay on your phone. It blocks adult sites with Apple’s Screen Time filter. If you want a community, QUITTR or Brainbuddy fits better. Published 2026-10-06. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: choosing-an-app. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/quittr-alternative Most people looking for a QUITTR alternative want either a cheaper option or a more private one. QUITTR, Brainbuddy and Seed all list a community, while Monke Reset has none and needs no account. If the community is what you want, QUITTR or Brainbuddy suits you better. Every claim below about another app comes from its own App Store listing, as listed on 6 October 2026. QUITTR’s website was not used as a source. Monke Reset is ours. ## What people look for in an alternative Three things come up most: - **A free option.** All three of the other apps here list a subscription for full access. The free blocking option on any iPhone is the Screen Time filter in Settings, covered in [can you block porn on an iPhone for free](https://monkereset.com/answers/can-you-block-porn-on-iphone-for-free). - **Less social.** Some people want a community. Others want to do this without anyone watching. - **Blocking that holds.** A blocker that lives inside an app can be deleted with the app. The difference between kinds of blocker is in [system filter vs DNS vs app blocker](https://monkereset.com/blog/system-filter-vs-dns-vs-app-blocker). Prices are left out on purpose. They vary by country, so check the App Store in your own region. ## What each app says it does [QUITTR](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/-/id6532588521) lists daily exercises, real-time progress tracking, a “Life Tree” that grows with your choices, meditations and challenges, a community where you can share stories and compete in challenges, and “advanced filtering technology” with AI-powered temptation blockers. Its listing says a subscription is required for full access. [Brainbuddy](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/brainbuddy-quit-porn-now/id726780077) lists a 100-day education programme, daily exercises, a daily checkup that tracks progress, a “Life Tree”, a community with team accountability challenges, and a content blocker and web filter. Its listing says all features require a paid Premium subscription after onboarding, and that it can save meditation sessions to Apple Health. [Seed](https://apps.apple.com/in/app/seed-quit-temptation-urges/id6636516894) lists streaks and achievements shown as 3D orbs, rewards and levels, hypnosis and breathing exercises for moments of temptation, an AI coach, and community support. Its listing says it offers in-app purchases and auto-renewing subscriptions. [Monke Reset](https://monkereset.com/) blocks adult sites with Apple’s Screen Time filter, plus apps you pick. Help is one tap from the home screen, with the reasons you wrote down, one line at a time to hold on to and your own pledge, and “I’m okay” logs an urge resisted. A full-year calendar keeps past days when you slip, so a slip costs one day. It has a streak, your best run, a 90-day plan with an end date and a short library. It is a paid subscription billed by Apple, with everything unlocked from the first screen. | | QUITTR | Brainbuddy | Seed | Monke Reset | |---|---|---|---|---| | Community | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | AI coach | Not listed | Not listed | Yes | No | | Blocking | Filtering and AI temptation blockers | Content blocker and web filter | Not listed | Screen Time filter plus apps you pick | | Paid for full access | Yes | Yes | In-app purchases and subscriptions | Yes | | Devices | iPhone and iPad | iPhone, iPad and iPod touch | iPhone | iPhone | “Not listed” means the listing does not mention it, which is not proof the app lacks it. ## No account, local-first Monke Reset needs no account. You open it and start. Your streak, written reasons and pledge stay on the phone. There is no leaderboard and no feed, and the reasoning is in [why there is no leaderboard](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-there-is-no-leaderboard). Each App Store listing has an App Privacy section filled in by the developer and not verified by Apple. As listed on 6 October 2026: - **QUITTR** lists identifiers and usage data under “Data Used to Track You”, and contact info under “Data Linked to You”. - **Brainbuddy** lists contact info, health and fitness, user content, identifiers, sensitive info and diagnostics under “Data Linked to You”. - **Seed** lists identifiers under “Data Used to Track You” and “Data Linked to You”. - **Monke Reset** lists purchases, identifiers, usage data and diagnostics under “Data Not Linked to You”, and nothing under the other two. Read the label for any app before you install it. It takes a minute and it is the developer’s own statement. The trade for privacy is real. Reporting progress to someone made tracking work better in the research covered in [should I tell someone I am quitting](https://monkereset.com/answers/should-i-tell-someone-i-am-quitting). If you want that and have no community in mind, an accountability app is the other route, compared in [a Covenant Eyes alternative for iPhone](https://monkereset.com/blog/covenant-eyes-alternative). ## Who QUITTR suits better QUITTR, or Brainbuddy, is the better fit if: - **You want a community** to share progress and compete in challenges with. - **You like a visual that grows**, such as the Life Tree both apps describe. - **You use an iPad.** Both list iPad support, and Monke Reset is iPhone only. Seed fits if you want an AI coach or hypnosis exercises, which Monke Reset does not have. Monke Reset fits if you want to do this privately, with blocking that iOS applies rather than the app, and a record that keeps your past days when you slip. Anyone with the Screen Time passcode can switch the filter off, and that is true of every app built on Screen Time. For a wider look at blockers, see [the best porn blocker for iPhone](https://monkereset.com/blog/best-porn-blocker-for-iphone), and if one has come off your phone before, [why porn blockers stop working](https://monkereset.com/why-blockers-fail). --- # Porn relapse often starts on a social feed > Most accounts of how it starts do not begin on a porn site. They begin on a phone that was already open. In 4,876 first-hand posts we read from a recovery community, 211 mention a social feed or scrolling and 17 name a porn site. That gap is worth designing around. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: the-moment-itself. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/it-starts-on-the-feed In first-hand accounts from a recovery community, the sequence usually starts in a social feed, not on a porn site. Of 4,876 accounts we read, 211 mention a feed or scrolling and 17 name a porn site. Blockers target the site, so they act on the end of the sequence and miss the start. The accounts tend to begin well before the website: in bed, not yet tired, opening something to fill four minutes, and somewhere else entirely forty minutes later. ## How we counted The source is an export of a NoFap recovery Discord: 216,500 messages from 2023-12-31 to 2026-08-26. Of those, 4,876 run over 200 characters. Short messages are mostly check-ins and encouragement. Long ones are where people describe what happened to them, so those 4,876 are what we mean by first-hand accounts. We counted how many mention each of two things. | Mentioned in a first-hand account | Count | Share | | --- | --- | --- | | A social feed, or the act of scrolling | 211 | 4.3% | | A named porn site, or an incognito tab | 17 | 0.3% | That’s twelve to one, in a community whose subject is porn. The corpus stays private and nothing in it is quoted here. Counting patterns in a recovery community is defensible. Republishing anyone is not. ## What the count doesn’t show It counts what people talk about. It doesn’t measure what causes what. There are four limits. The feed is easier to admit to, so social acceptability inflates one column and deflates the other. It is one community, skewing young and male, not a sample of anyone. Keyword counting misses accounts that describe the same thing in other words. And a mention is not a cause: nobody was asked what set the night off. They talked, and we counted. So the claim is narrow. When people in this community describe how it started, a feed comes up roughly twelve times as often as a porn site. It’s a finding about where the story begins, not about brains, and the story begins on a phone that was already unlocked. ## Why do porn blockers miss the start? A content filter stops the site. It doesn’t stop the twenty minutes of scrolling that end with someone looking for the site. By the time the filter has anything to do, the decision is mostly made. The filter is still worth having, and it’s the single highest-value thing to set up. The steps are in [how to block porn on an iPhone](https://monkereset.com/how-to-block-porn-on-iphone). It just covers the last five seconds of a longer sequence. This is also why deleting one app rarely holds. The behaviour is attached to the gap the app was filling, not to the app. Remove the app and the gap is still there at 11pm, with something else already installed. Whether deleting is worth doing anyway is covered in [does deleting social media help you quit porn](https://monkereset.com/answers/does-deleting-social-media-help-you-quit-porn). ## Which moods come up most? Stress and boredom, by a distance. Across the same 4,876 accounts, stress appears in 192, boredom in 113, anxiety in 109, tiredness or exhaustion in 87, loneliness in 76 and anger in 51. The same caveats apply. These are mentions in conversation, not diagnoses, and a word can appear for reasons unrelated to a relapse. It matches what people say when they work it out for themselves: it fills the cracks in the day, rarely planned, reached for the way a phone comes out in a slow queue. A gap can be filled in advance. A craving can’t, which makes the gap the more workable problem. ## How to interrupt the sequence earlier Three steps, in the order they help. **Add friction where the sequence starts.** If it starts in a feed, the feed is where an intervention buys the most time. That doesn’t have to mean deleting anything. A time limit on the app that opens first, or charging the phone somewhere out of arm’s reach of the bed, both make the first four minutes cost something. **Write out your own run-up while calm.** Not the urge, the steps before it: what you opened first, what time it was, what you had just finished doing. Most people can write it out in two minutes. A sequence you can describe is easier to interrupt than a feeling you can’t. **Set the filter for the nights the first two don’t cover.** Some nights they won’t, and a filter keeps working without any effort on the night. Which method does what is in [three ways to block porn on a phone](https://monkereset.com/blog/system-filter-vs-dns-vs-app-blocker), and why blocker apps tend to come off phones within a week is in [why porn blockers stop working](https://monkereset.com/why-blockers-fail). ## The short version Most of these stories don’t start where blockers point. A filter covers the last five seconds. The twenty minutes before happen in an ordinary app, and that’s where there’s room to change something. What to do once an urge has started is in [the first sixty seconds of an urge](https://monkereset.com/blog/the-first-sixty-seconds-of-an-urge). --- # Why people drop out of quit-porn programmes > The only randomised trial of an online self-help tool for problematic pornography use reported large effects, but 89.4% of the intervention arm dropped out and overall follow-up was 34.5%. The effects were measured on the third who stayed. The dropout figure says more about what a tool for this has to survive. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: naming-the-problem. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/most-people-quit-the-programme-not-the-porn Most people who start an online self-help programme for porn use don’t finish it. In the only randomised trial of one, 89.4% of the intervention arm dropped out, and the large effects it reported were measured on the third who stayed. For anyone choosing a tool, the dropout rate is the more useful finding. ## What did the Hands-off trial find? Large effects among those who finished, with no therapist involved. Bőthe and colleagues published Hands-off in the [Journal of Behavioral Addictions](https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2021.00070) in 2021, open access. It had two arms, 264 people and a six-week web-based self-help programme. On problematic pornography use, d = 1.32. On how often people used it, d = 1.65. Self-perceived addiction d = 0.85, craving d = 0.40, confidence in avoiding it d = 0.87. As of 2026 it is the only randomised controlled trial of a web-based self-help tool for problematic pornography use, and the evidence that a self-directed tool can move this at all. Most citations stop at these figures. ## How many people dropped out? 89.4% of the intervention arm, against 44.7% in the control arm. Overall follow-up was 34.5%. So the effect sizes were computed on roughly a third of the people who started, specifically those who stayed to the end of six weeks. The authors call it a feasibility trial and "only a first step". Quoting d = 1.32 without the dropout misrepresents the paper, and it is done constantly. ## What does the dropout rate show? It describes the people a tool like this is for. The participants volunteered for a research study about their own porn use, which already signals high intent, and got a structured six-week programme. Nine in ten in the intervention arm stopped showing up. The shortage was not information or a plan. It was a plan that holds up on an ordinary weeknight. Outside trials it looks the same. Apps come off the phone within a week. The accountability partner gets three messages and then nothing. The 30-day programme is abandoned on day 4, and the person blames themselves, when the researched version kept about one in ten. More on the early days in [why you keep relapsing on day two or three](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-you-keep-relapsing-on-day-three). ## What should a tool for this do differently? Put less weight on programme content and more on the daily loop. If nine in ten won’t finish six weeks, a tool has to work on an ordinary night, in the ninety seconds someone will give it. That means three things. **Help during an urge is one tap away.** No module, no lesson. Anything that requires reading is hard to use at 11pm. **A slip doesn’t delete the record.** Making the fourth day feel like starting over is a reliable way to produce a dropout. Gardner, Lally and Wardle, in the [British Journal of General Practice](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3505409/) in 2012, found that missing an occasional opportunity "did not seriously impair the habit formation process" and that gains resumed. That research is about building simple daily routines rather than stopping something, and "did not seriously impair" is not "does not matter". It is still the best available evidence that one bad night is one bad night. A counter that resets to zero asserts the opposite, without a source. **The daily action costs almost nothing.** Harkin and colleagues, pooling 138 studies and nearly 20,000 people in [Psychological Bulletin](https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000025) in 2016, found progress monitoring promoted goal attainment at d+ = 0.40, and worked better when progress was physically recorded rather than kept in your head. That is general health behaviour, not porn. Marking a day takes about two seconds, the kind of action that survives a 90% dropout environment. ## What this doesn’t show It doesn’t show that programmes are worthless, or that this app works. Hands-off is one feasibility trial with a small sample, and its authors say so. No such trial has been run on Monke Reset or any app in this category, and nothing here is treatment. If this is causing serious distress, a professional is a better call than an app. [Is porn addiction real](https://monkereset.com/blog/is-porn-addiction-real) explains the diagnosis that does exist. A self-directed tool is the only approach with any evidence attached, that evidence is thin, and the dropout figure is the part most worth building around. ## The short version The most-quoted number from this trial is d = 1.32. The more useful one is 89.4%. If you’ve quit four apps, that matches the trial’s result. It points toward a tool built around the ninety seconds people give it, not a course most won’t finish. What those seconds should contain is in [the first sixty seconds of an urge](https://monkereset.com/blog/the-first-sixty-seconds-of-an-urge), and what research says about the weeks after is in [what happens when you quit porn](https://monkereset.com/blog/what-happens-when-you-quit-porn). --- # How to stop a porn urge in the first minute > The decision about an urge usually gets made in its first minute, when deciding is hardest. The best-evidenced approach is to choose your response in advance, as a written if-then sentence: when this happens, I do that. Studies of drinking and smoking found small benefits. Delays and a content filter add time. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: the-moment-itself. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/the-first-sixty-seconds-of-an-urge During an urge, choosing well is hardest, so the response works best when it was chosen beforehand. The best-evidenced method is an if-then plan written in advance: when this happens, I do that. Adding a delay and setting up a content filter ahead of time give that plan room to work. ## What happens in the first minute of an urge? The urge arrives, and a fast decision follows, made in a state that is poor at deciding. The urge itself comes and goes. What turns it into a night is the fifteen seconds spent weighing it up, at the point where weighing things up is hardest. The options that feel available are the ones already in reach. The case for stopping has to be built from scratch, while the case for not stopping is already there. That makes willpower the wrong frame. The issue isn’t having less of it than someone else. It’s facing a hard decision at the worst possible time, again and again. That’s a scheduling problem, not a character problem. ## How do you plan for an urge in advance? Write your response down beforehand, in the form "if this happens, then I do that". It’s the least exciting advice here and it has the best evidence. Malaguti and colleagues pooled 21 randomised trials in [Drug and Alcohol Dependence](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108120) in 2020 and found that deciding a response in advance helped with drinking at g = 0.31 and with smoking at g = 0.31. The effects are small, the authors say so, and nobody has run the equivalent trial on porn. It still beats deciding in the moment. The plan has to be specific. "I’ll be careful tonight" is a mood, not a plan. Name the trigger exactly enough to recognise it when it turns up. - When I get into bed with my phone, I put it on the desk and read instead. - When I have been scrolling for ten minutes, I stand up and leave the room. - When I wake up at 4am, I do not check anything, I turn over. - When I am home alone on a Friday, I go to the gym before I sit down. Plans this specific can feel slightly embarrassing to write. That usually means they’re specific enough. Write them down rather than keeping them in your head. Harkin and colleagues, pooling 138 studies in [Psychological Bulletin](https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000025) in 2016, found progress monitoring worked better when the information was physically recorded. That finding is about monitoring rather than plans, and about health behaviour rather than porn. The practical point carries over: a plan held only in memory is easy to lose at 11pm. ## How do you buy time during an urge? Add a delay. Anything that adds time works better than anything that requires winning an argument with yourself. The goal isn’t to defeat the urge. It’s to turn sixty seconds into five minutes, because at minute five there are more options than at minute one. Each of these buys time rather than asking for willpower. - Change rooms. Most of the setup is physical, and the sequence doesn’t travel well. - Put the phone somewhere you have to stand up to reach. Arm’s reach is not a distance. - Move for ninety seconds. Push-ups are what people in the accounts we read reach for most. The point isn’t fitness. It’s hard to hold a thought while out of breath. - Cold water on your face or wrists, for the same reason. - Text one person that you’re having a hard night. One sentence, not a confession. Whether to tell anyone at all is covered in [should I tell someone I am trying to quit](https://monkereset.com/answers/should-i-tell-someone-i-am-quitting). None of these has a trial behind it for this behaviour, and none is a cure. They put off the decision, which is all they need to do. ## Why set up a filter before you need it? It asks nothing of you during the urge. Every other step here asks for effort at the moment there’s least to give. The content filter in iPhone Settings is already on, so you aren’t involved. Setting it up takes about five minutes on a quiet afternoon: [how to block porn on an iPhone](https://monkereset.com/how-to-block-porn-on-iphone). One limit: anyone with the Screen Time passcode can turn it off, including you. It’s a delay, not a wall. A delay is worth a lot at 11pm and worth nothing if you’re counting on it to be a wall. Why blocker apps tend to come off phones within a week is in [why porn blockers stop working](https://monkereset.com/why-blockers-fail). ## Where does an urge usually start? Often earlier, in an ordinary app rather than on a porn site. In 4,876 first-hand accounts from a recovery community, a social feed or the act of scrolling shows up in 211 and a named porn site in 17. That counts mentions, not causes, with all the limits that implies. It still suggests the sequence usually starts in an ordinary app, so the most useful interruption is often twenty minutes before the minute this page is about. The full count and its caveats are in [it usually starts on a feed](https://monkereset.com/blog/it-starts-on-the-feed). ## What to do tonight Three steps, none of which takes twenty minutes. 1. Write two if-then sentences for the two moments that most often lead to a slip, and put them where you’ll see them. 2. Turn on the content filter. 3. Decide now what the physical action will be, so you aren’t choosing one during an urge. If tonight goes badly anyway, the morning after is covered in [why you keep relapsing on day two or three](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-you-keep-relapsing-on-day-three). --- # What happens when you quit porn: the evidence > Nobody has measured a week by week timeline for quitting porn. The schedules online come from personal accounts, not studies. What has been measured is habit formation in general, where the median time to automaticity was 66 days and individuals ranged from 18 to 254, plus one six-week trial of an online self-help tool. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: naming-the-problem. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/what-happens-when-you-quit-porn Nobody has measured what happens week by week when you quit porn. The day-by-day schedules in search results trace back to personal accounts, not studies. The research that exists covers habit formation in general and one trial of an online self-help tool, and none of it puts a date on any change. The schedules tend to look alike: withdrawal in days 1 to 7, energy back by day 14, mental clarity at day 30, the reset complete at day 90. They broadly agree, and almost none cite a source. A page that promises clarity on day 14 makes a bad day 15 look like a personal failure. ## Where do the week-by-week timelines come from? Forum posts, repeated until they read like findings. You can check this in about ten minutes. Open the first five results for the question. For each week-by-week claim, look for a citation. Where there is one, open it and see whether the paper says what the page says. Mostly you’ll find pages citing other pages, and the occasional real paper attached to a sentence it doesn’t support. Someone describes their own weeks, with the hedges intact. It gets quoted, and the quote drops the hedges. Ten posts later it’s a table with day numbers in it, and nobody in the chain ran a study. ## What has research measured? Three things, none of them a timeline for quitting porn. **Habit formation in daily life.** Lally and colleagues followed 96 volunteers building simple daily routines and published the results in the [European Journal of Social Psychology](https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674) in 2010. The median time to reach the automaticity plateau was 66 days. Individuals ranged from 18 to 254 days. With a spread that wide, no single number applies to any one person. **The cost of a missed day.** Gardner, Lally and Wardle summarised the same work in the [British Journal of General Practice](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3505409/) in 2012, which is free to read. Missing the occasional opportunity to perform the behaviour "did not seriously impair the habit formation process", and gains resumed afterwards. **One trial of an online self-help tool for this problem.** Bőthe and colleagues ran a two-armed randomised controlled trial of a six-week web-based tool with 264 people, published in the [Journal of Behavioral Addictions](https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2021.00070) in 2021. Reported effects were large: d = 1.32 on problematic pornography use and d = 1.65 on frequency. It is the closest thing to evidence that a self-directed tool moves this at all. The trial also lost most of its participants, which is covered in [most people quit the programme, not the porn](https://monkereset.com/blog/most-people-quit-the-programme-not-the-porn). ## What gets claimed without evidence? Most of what the timelines promise. | The claim | What backs it | | --- | --- | | Withdrawal peaks in week 1 | No study of this behaviour | | Energy and focus return by week 2 | No study of this behaviour | | Confidence rises around day 30 | No study of this behaviour | | Receptors recover by day 90 | Not what the imaging literature says, and that literature is contested | | A 90-day reset completes the process | 90 is not a number any study endorses | The receptor claim sounds the most scientific and is the furthest from anything measured. Brain-imaging work in this area is disputed among researchers, and the popular version has been simplified until it is no longer accurate. Nobody knows what anyone’s receptors are doing on day 47. The same applies to focus: [does quitting porn fix brain fog](https://monkereset.com/answers/does-quitting-porn-fix-brain-fog) covers what can and can’t be said about it. ## What can you expect when you quit porn? Nobody can give you the week, the order or the size of any change. In the best habit-formation data, individuals ranged from 18 days to 254, a factor of 14 between people doing the same thing. Those were simple routines like drinking a glass of water. Something more tangled is likely to spread wider, not narrower. What you can check is behavioural, and it’s countable from day two: how many hours went somewhere else this week, whether the evening that used to disappear went somewhere, whether a day you would once have written off made it to the end. None of it needs a theory about receptors. Tracking is also where the evidence is strongest. Harkin and colleagues pooled 138 studies and nearly 20,000 people in [Psychological Bulletin](https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000025) in 2016. Progress monitoring promoted goal attainment at d+ = 0.40, with a larger effect when progress was physically recorded rather than kept in your head. That covers health behaviour in general, not porn, and the effect is moderate. It is still better grounds for marking the day than any timeline online. ## Why is a made-up timeline worse than none? It gives you a date to fail against. If week 2 is supposed to bring clarity and doesn’t, there are now two problems: the original one, and the belief that you’re behind. The schedule created the second one. Smoking research describes a similar pattern. Curry, Marlatt and Gordon reported in 1987 that what predicted whether one slip became a full return was not the slip but what the person decided it meant about them. A missed milestone can work the same way. That model comes from smoking and drinking research, and nobody has tested it on porn. Read every timeline as writing rather than measurement, including this page, which at least says which claims have a paper behind them. ## The short version The habit research gives a median of 66 days and a range of 18 to 254, and found that a missed day did not derail the process. One trial suggests a self-directed tool can help, with a dropout caveat large enough to need its own page. The rest of the week-by-week posts are personal accounts, repeated. The full habit numbers are in [how long it takes to break a habit](https://monkereset.com/blog/how-long-to-break-a-habit). If the first few days keep ending the same way, see [why you keep relapsing on day two or three](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-you-keep-relapsing-on-day-three). --- # Why Monke Reset has no leaderboard > Monke Reset has a streak and a calendar because monitoring progress is one of the best-evidenced self-regulation strategies there is. It has no leaderboard or feed, even though the same research found public reporting works better, because a public streak about this behaviour is a reason to delete the app. Published 2026-09-01. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: counting-the-days. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/why-there-is-no-leaderboard Monke Reset has no leaderboard because a public streak about porn gives people a reason to delete the app. The research behind the streak, a 2016 meta-analysis by Harkin and colleagues, found that reporting progress publicly made monitoring work better. We kept the private part of that finding and left out the public part, and this post explains the trade. Many habit apps ask for a username on the second screen, keep a friends list in settings, and show your number next to your name. For a number about porn, that design asks people to accept an audience many of them won’t want. ## Why track a private habit at all? Counting is the part with the most research behind it. Harkin and colleagues, publishing in [Psychological Bulletin](https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000025) in 2016, pooled 138 studies and 19,951 people to ask a narrow question: if you get someone to monitor their progress toward a goal, do they reach it more often? They did, at d+ = 0.40, with a 95% confidence interval from 0.32 to 0.48. In a field where many interventions show no effect, that result holds up. The limit: this is general self-regulation across health behaviours such as eating, exercise and weight. Nobody has run it on porn. Monitoring progress is one of the best-evidenced things a person can do about a goal in general, and that is why the streak and the calendar exist. It is not proven to fix this specifically, because that study hasn’t been done. ## Does looking at your progress matter? Yes. In Harkin’s analysis, the effect was mediated by how often progress was monitored. Mediated means the checking does the work. Interventions that got people to look at their progress more often produced bigger effects, and without the looking, the effect goes too. A counter you never see is not a small version of this. It is a different thing with the same name. The number matters when you look at it and think about the day ahead, which is why what else the number carries matters too. The effect was also larger when the information was physically recorded rather than held in memory. A calendar with 365 boxes is a recording surface, and marking today is the physical act the research describes. ## Does making progress public help? In Harkin’s data, yes, and that finding argues against this design. The moderator analysis found the effect was larger when progress was reported or made public. Telling someone else, or putting the number where others can see it, made monitoring work better than keeping it private. That result is in the same paper we cite for the streak. For a step counter or a running app, it would be an instruction to build the feed, and building it would be right. For this, we took the recording benefit and declined the publicity benefit, knowing what it costs. ## Why is a public porn-free streak a bad idea? The studies where publicity helped weren’t about porn. Public reporting works partly because people don’t want to look bad in front of those whose opinion they care about. That pressure helps when the behaviour is neutral to admit. Missing a run is easy to admit, and nobody flinches at a chart showing a bad Thursday of eating. Attach the same mechanic to porn and every reset becomes an announcement, to whoever is on the list, that you looked at porn last night. For many people that turns the app into something to delete, and an app off the phone has an effect size of zero. Public numbers also turn into performance. Once others can see the streak, it stops being a record and becomes something to protect, and protecting a number is a different activity from getting through an ordinary day. People describe spending entire days worrying about losing the count, which means a day spent thinking about the thing they are trying not to think about. That pattern is covered in [why you keep relapsing on day two or three](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-you-keep-relapsing-on-day-three). An audience makes the pressure worse and makes lying tempting, and a tracker you lie to holds nothing useful. A leaderboard also ranks people. It turns a private count into a position and invites comparison with someone whose history, phone and past nights aren’t in the column. A number about someone else ends up read as a verdict on yourself. ## What Monke Reset has instead A streak, a best run, and a full-year calendar marking every day free and every relapse. No feed, no leaderboard, no friends list, no shareable card, no username. The number never leaves the phone, so nobody sees it, including us. That is a trade, not a feature list. The app keeps the parts of Harkin’s findings that work in private, recording and frequent looking, and leaves out the part that needs an audience. If monitoring has a smaller effect when nobody else can see it, the app offers less than the maximum the literature describes. It is still the largest effect available to something people keep installed. The publicity half doesn’t need a product. The research says reporting to someone helps. It doesn’t say the someone has to be a scoreboard of strangers. Telling one person who already knows is closer to what those studies did than a feed of usernames, and you choose when to stop, which a feed doesn’t allow. The case for and against is in [should I tell someone I am trying to quit](https://monkereset.com/answers/should-i-tell-someone-i-am-quitting). ## How should you use the calendar? As a record, not a judgement. Nothing you mark goes to anyone. With no audience, there’s no reason to leave a day blank to keep the page tidy. A month with five bad days marked is more use than a month abandoned on day six. The first shows when this tends to happen. The second is empty. Marking the day and looking at it is the mechanism, as far as anyone has measured. Keeping it private is the cost we chose so that people keep doing it. ## The source Harkin, Webb, Chang, Prestwich, Conner, Kellar, Benn and Sheeran, "Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence", Psychological Bulletin, 2016, [doi:10.1037/bul0000025](https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000025). 138 studies, 19,951 participants, d+ = 0.40, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.48. The public-reporting moderator is in the same paper as the number on our home page. If a study is harder to find than the claim it supposedly backs, that is worth noticing, here as anywhere. --- # How many days to break a habit? Not 21 > Twenty-one days is not what the research found. Lally and colleagues, in 2010, followed 96 volunteers forming simple daily routines and measured a median of 66 days to reach automaticity, with individuals ranging from 18 days to 254. The range matters more than the median: the timeline varies widely between people, so no single day works as a deadline. Published 2026-08-29. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: counting-the-days. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/how-long-to-break-a-habit It does not take 21 days. The best-known measurement, by Lally and colleagues in 2010, found a median of 66 days for a simple daily habit to become automatic, with individuals ranging from 18 to 254 days. No study produced the 21-day figure. If day 21 came and went and it was still hard, that fits the data. The real numbers are also more useful than a short deadline would have been. ## What the 66-day study measured Lally and colleagues, publishing in the [European Journal of Social Psychology](https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674) in 2010, gave 96 volunteers one simple daily thing each: eat a piece of fruit, go for a walk, drink a glass of water. They tracked how automatic it felt over time and measured how long each person took to reach the point where that curve flattened out. The median was 66 days. Individual times ran from 18 days to 254, a gap of nearly eight months between the fastest and slowest person, on tasks that took under a minute a day. ## Why the range matters more than the median A median tells you where the middle was. The range tells you what normal covers. Half the volunteers took longer than 66 days. Some took nearly four times that, doing the same trivial task under the same conditions. A tight cluster would have justified a deadline. A spread this wide means no single day predicts anything for any one person. The same authors note that automaticity arrives faster for a simple action, drinking a glass of water, than for an elaborate one, fifty sit-ups. Any timeline measured against 66 days is being measured against people drinking water. The takeaway is the spread. Taking longer than expected is the expected result, and it reflects the range, not the person. ## If you passed 21 days and it was still hard That is inside the measured range. The damage the 21-day figure does is to supply a date. When the date passes and nothing feels different, the only variable left in the sum is the person, and a bad week turns into a verdict on character. That verdict comes from a wrong number, not from the evidence. At day 66, half the people in Lally's study had still not reached the plateau, on the least demanding habits anybody has been asked to form. ## What happens to the process when you miss a day Less than most streak counters assume. Gardner, Lally and Wardle wrote the research up in the [British Journal of General Practice](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3505409/) in 2012, and the paper is free to read: "Missing the occasional opportunity to perform the behaviour did not seriously impair the habit formation process: automaticity gains soon resumed after one missed performance." One missed day did not send anybody back to the start. The gains resumed where they left off. Every counter that resets to zero after a slip is built on the opposite assumption, that the slip undid the progress. The best habit-formation data available says it did not. The limit is real. "Did not seriously impair" is not "does not matter". One missed glass of water is not a relapse into something with an urge behind it. The study is about building a simple routine, not stopping a compulsive behavior, and nobody has run the equivalent test on that. It is evidence that a missed day does not end the process. It is not permission. ## What the study does not say about quitting porn Nearly everything, and its limits should travel with the number. Ninety-six people is a small study. They were adding a simple routine, not stopping something they wanted and could reach in two seconds. The paper is called "How are habits formed", and it is about starting one. Automaticity was self-reported: people were asked how automatic it felt. Nothing in it touches porn, compulsive behavior, or anything with an urge attached. So 66 days is not a prescription, and it is not a timeline for this. A claim that science says quitting porn takes 66 days, or 90, or any other number, is quoting a study about eating fruit. ## Why the plan runs to ninety days, then Ninety is a generous place for a checkpoint. Lally et al. never produced the number 90, and the study does not endorse it as a target. The plan in the app runs to 90 days and gives you a real date. Ninety sits past the 66-day median with room to spare. Day 90 is followed by day 91. The plan frames the first run and does not end anything. A date helps because a run with a visible end is something a person can start on a Tuesday. "Never again, for the rest of my life" is not. ## What to do with a range this wide Nothing that follows from 18 to 254 involves picking a better deadline. Count the days you have instead of counting down to one you do not. A number that goes up survives being wrong about the timeline. A countdown to a graduation has to be right about it. Take the timeline out of the argument. The 21-day myth is expensive because it keeps the question of whether this is working open every night, and that argument is easiest to lose at 1am. Removing the one-tap path removes most of it. iOS has a content filter you can turn on yourself in about five minutes, free, and the steps are in [how to block porn on an iPhone](https://monkereset.com/how-to-block-porn-on-iphone). Keep marking the days, including the ones that go wrong. If a missed day does not derail the process, a counter that wipes to zero tells a story the habit research does not support, at the moment it is hardest to argue with. A calendar that holds the whole year is still there at day 254 to show what happened. Most attempts come apart much earlier, and that is covered in [why you keep relapsing on day two or three](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-you-keep-relapsing-on-day-three). If an attempt came apart later, after a month, there is a short answer in [is it normal to relapse after 30 days](https://monkereset.com/answers/is-it-normal-to-relapse-after-thirty-days). None of this shortens the timeline. It stops the timeline being the thing you argue with yourself about. --- # ICD-11 CSBD (6C72): is porn addiction real? > There is no diagnosis called porn addiction. ICD-11 lists compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD) under impulse control disorders. Kraus and colleagues wrote in 2018 that it was placed there rather than with the addictions because there is not yet definitive evidence that it works the same way as substance use, gambling or gaming. Published 2026-08-29. Last updated 2026-10-14. Topic: naming-the-problem. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/is-porn-addiction-real The problem is real, but not under that name. ICD-11, the World Health Organization's classification of diseases, has no diagnosis called porn addiction. It does include compulsive sexual behaviour disorder (CSBD), filed under impulse control disorders and kept out of the addictions grouping because, according to the people who wrote it, the evidence is not in yet. That puts the accurate answer between the two usual ones. Porn addiction is not a recognized medical diagnosis, and the problem is not moral panic either. The condition is recognized. The addiction label is the part that was left out. ## Is porn addiction in the ICD-11? No. What ICD-11 has is compulsive sexual behaviour disorder, code 6C72, in chapter 6 under impulse control disorders. The entry is in the [WHO ICD-11 browser](https://icd.who.int/browse/2024-01/mms/en#1630268048). ICD-11 has a separate grouping for disorders due to substance use and addictive behaviours. Gambling disorder and gaming disorder are in it. CSBD is not. The manual spells it the British way, and the 2018 paper that introduced it, by Kraus and colleagues in [World Psychiatry](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5775124/), states the placement in one sentence: > "Compulsive sexual behaviour disorder is not included in the ICD-11 grouping > of disorders due to substance use and addictive behaviours, but rather in that > of impulse control disorders." The full text is free to read. ## Why impulse control and not addiction The group writing the classification said the evidence was not there yet. They gave the reason in the same paper: > "...recognizing that we do not yet have definitive information on whether the > processes involved in the development and maintenance of the disorder are > equivalent to those observed in substance use disorders, gambling and gaming." Calling something an addiction is a claim about mechanism: that it runs on the same processes as substance dependence or gambling. The group did not say that claim is false. They said the information needed to settle it does not exist yet, so they left the claim out and printed why. The argument continued after the manual shipped. Researchers still disagree in print about whether the addiction framing fits this behavior. Anyone who calls the question closed, in either direction, is ahead of the evidence. ## What compulsive sexual behaviour disorder describes The paper's definition: > "a persistent pattern of failure to control intense, repetitive sexual > impulses or urges, resulting in repetitive sexual behaviour over an extended > period (e.g., six months or more) that causes marked distress or impairment." The clause most articles drop is the last one: marked distress or impairment. The only number in the definition is the six months. Nothing in it concerns how much someone watches, or how that compares with anyone else. A clinician working from it asks about control and distress, not volume. ## Does that mean porn addiction isn't real? No. It means the everyday word and the diagnosis do different jobs. A classification decides which section a condition goes in, which criteria a clinician checks and what gets coded on a form. It is not a ruling on whether someone's experience is real, and it was never designed to be one. Both of these hold. There is no diagnosis called porn addiction. And the diagnosis quoted above describes something many people would recognize. People trying to quit say "addiction" constantly, and the word matches how it feels: doing something after deciding not to. That is a description, not a diagnosis, and a description does not need a manual's permission. What this site will not say is that porn addiction is a recognized medical diagnosis. It is not one. ## Can a website tell you whether you have it? No. That includes this one and any quiz attached to an app. CSBD is diagnosed by a clinician, against criteria, in a conversation where they can ask follow-up questions and rule out alternatives. A form filled in alone on a phone cannot do that, and a self-test for this offers the feeling of an answer without the answer. For a real one, see a doctor or a therapist who works on compulsive sexual behaviour. If what is going on is heavier than a habit, and particularly if you are thinking about hurting yourself, contact emergency services. A habit app is the wrong tool for that night. ## What changes if the word changes Very little about what to do next. Whether the right term is addiction, compulsion or habit, three things stay the same. Porn is a couple of taps away. Urges arrive whether or not they have a label. And what someone decides a relapse means about them decides whether they carry on. None of those is a label problem. The first is a settings problem: iOS ships a content filter you can turn on yourself in about five minutes, free, and the steps are in [how to block porn on an iPhone](https://monkereset.com/how-to-block-porn-on-iphone). The second is a planning problem, easier to solve in daylight than late at night. The third is where most attempts come apart, and it is covered in [why you keep relapsing on day two or three](https://monkereset.com/blog/why-you-keep-relapsing-on-day-three). How long this takes, with the measured median and range, is in [how long it takes to break a habit](https://monkereset.com/blog/how-long-to-break-a-habit). Where the week-by-week timelines found elsewhere come from is in [what happens when you quit porn](https://monkereset.com/blog/what-happens-when-you-quit-porn). ## What Monke Reset is A habit tool. It takes the one-tap path away, puts something on the screen during the minute the urge is loudest, and keeps marking the days either way. No trial has been run on it, and it does not diagnose or treat anything. It is not a substitute for a clinician, and the two can be used together. Any app in this category claiming to be enough on its own is guessing. --- # Porn filter vs DNS vs app blocker on iPhone > Three things get called a porn blocker. An app-based blocker filters inside its own browser, so switching apps defeats it. A DNS filter changes where your phone looks up addresses, and it drops when you switch networks. A system content filter is applied by iOS itself, so it keeps working when the app is closed. Published 2026-08-29. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: blocking-mechanisms. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/system-filter-vs-dns-vs-app-blocker The three kinds of porn blocker fail in different places. An app-based blocker stops working when you switch apps, a DNS filter can drop when you switch networks, and the iOS system content filter keeps running with the app closed until someone enters the Screen Time passcode. ## What an app-based blocker stops An app-based blocker ships its own browser and filters inside it, so it works only while you use that browser. A different browser gets around it, as does the in-app browser inside a social app, and deleting the blocker takes about four seconds. iOS gives one app no control over another, so this is a platform limit, not the builders' fault. ## What a DNS filter stops A DNS filter changes where your phone looks up addresses. A blocked site's lookup returns nothing, so the page fails to load. It covers apps as well as browsers, which an app-based blocker does not. Switching networks can hand you a different resolver, and the profile is a settings toggle away from off unless something locks it. It also sees only the name requested, not what is on the page, so it is coarse by design. ## What the system content filter stops iOS has a content filter built into Screen Time. An app can ask the system to turn it on, and from then on iOS does the filtering, not the app that asked. There is no icon to delete, because the filter does not live in an app. It keeps working while that app is closed, and the switch that turns it off sits in Settings behind the Screen Time passcode. The short version has its own page: [does a porn blocker still work when the app is closed](https://monkereset.com/answers/does-a-porn-blocker-work-when-the-app-is-closed). ## Where the limit is Anyone who knows the Screen Time passcode can turn the filter off. That is true of every iOS app that uses it, including ours, and an app that claims otherwise is wrong about how the platform works. None of these is a wall. The system filter buys delay: the one-tap path is gone, and what replaces it is slow and dull enough to leave room to change your mind. That is a smaller promise than App Store screenshots make, and it holds up at 1am. ## Which to pick On iOS, use the system content filter if you want the version that does not depend on your cooperation. You can turn it on yourself through Screen Time in about five minutes, and the steps are in [how to block porn on an iPhone](https://monkereset.com/how-to-block-porn-on-iphone). It costs nothing, which has its own answer in [can you block porn on an iPhone for free](https://monkereset.com/answers/can-you-block-porn-on-iphone-for-free). If a blocker has come off your phone before, the mechanism was probably not the problem. That is covered in [why porn blockers stop working](https://monkereset.com/why-blockers-fail). --- # Why do I keep relapsing on day 2 or 3? > Most attempts do not fail at day ninety. They fail on day two or day three. Two things are usually going on: deciding what to do about an urge while the urge is happening, and thinking about the number instead of the day in front of you. Neither is a willpower problem. Published 2026-08-29. Last updated 2026-10-06. Topic: counting-the-days. Canonical: https://monkereset.com/blog/why-you-keep-relapsing-on-day-three Most attempts to quit end on day two or three, not day ninety. The usual causes are deciding how to handle an urge in the middle of it, and watching the count instead of the day. Neither is a willpower problem, and both have a fix with some evidence behind it. ## Why day three and not day thirty Because the first few days decide most attempts, and very little advice is aimed at them. In what people write when they ask for help with this, one sentence keeps coming back in different words: I keep failing after two or three days. Hardly anyone describes losing their way in week eight or getting bored around day forty. It is two or three days, over and over, sometimes since they were fourteen. That makes the wall a feature of the problem rather than a personal flaw. Almost everything written about quitting skips it and starts at day sixty. ## The loop, and which part of it is the engine The relapse starts the loop. The hour afterwards keeps it going. The sequence people describe is consistent. Something sets it off, they give in, and then they feel awful. Feeling awful makes everything else hard, so the studying does not get done, the gym does not happen and the day gets written off. A written-off day has nothing in it, and the next day starts from there. The wanting sets it off. What someone tells themselves afterwards keeps it running, and that is the half with room to act on. It is the difference between one bad night and a bad month. ## The part where thinking about it is what breaks it Watching the count can cause the relapse. This cuts against how most apps in this area work, ours included. One person working out their own pattern noticed why they kept failing on day three. They were thinking about the count constantly: about the number, and about losing it. A day spent guarding a number is a day spent thinking about the thing you are trying not to think about. The most agreed-with advice on this lands in the same place from the other side. How you feel about the number does not matter. What you choose today does. So treat the count like a tally on the back of an envelope. It records what you have done. When it starts to feel like something to defend, move your attention back to the next few hours. ## What to do on day two Decide your response before the urge arrives, and write it down while deciding is easy. It is the least exciting advice here and has the best evidence. Choosing a response in advance, in an if-this-then-that form, has been tested on drinking and on smoking. Malaguti and colleagues pooled 21 trials in [Drug and Alcohol Dependence](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108120) in 2020 and found it helped with both, at around g = 0.31 each. The effects are small, the authors say so, and nobody has run the same test on this. It beats deciding in the moment. It does not do the work for you. In practice that means specific sentences, even slightly embarrassing ones, because embarrassing and specific beats dignified and vague. When the urge hits at night I will get out of bed and go to the kitchen. When I have been on my phone for an hour I will leave it in another room. The more exactly a plan names the moment, the more use it is when the moment arrives. Write it where you will see it. Harkin and colleagues, pooling 138 studies and nearly 20,000 people in [Psychological Bulletin](https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000025) in 2016, found that keeping track of progress helps people reach goals, at d+ = 0.40, and that it helped more when people wrote things down instead of only thinking about them. That covers health behavior in general, such as eating and exercise, not this specifically. It is the reason to put the plan on paper and mark the day. What that looks like inside the minute itself is in [the first sixty seconds of an urge](https://monkereset.com/blog/the-first-sixty-seconds-of-an-urge). The step that does not depend on being sharp at 1am is removing the easy path in advance. Your iPhone has a content filter built into Settings that you can switch on yourself in about five minutes, for free. It is the highest-value step on this list, because it works when nobody is at their best. The steps are in [how to block porn on an iPhone](https://monkereset.com/how-to-block-porn-on-iphone). ## What to do when it happens anyway Treat it as one day. As far as anybody has measured, that is what it is. Gardner, Lally and Wardle, following people building simple daily habits, summed it up in the [British Journal of General Practice](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3505409/) in 2012, and that paper is free to read. Missing the occasional day "did not seriously impair the habit formation process", and the gains resumed afterwards. The limits sit next to that. Not seriously impaired is not the same as no effect. One missed glass of water is not this. And nobody has run the equivalent test on quitting porn. It is the closest evidence there is that one day is one day, and it is not a free pass. The part that does the real damage has a name, from work on people quitting smoking. Curry, Marlatt and Gordon described it in 1987: what predicted whether one slip turned into a full return was not the slip but what the person decided the slip meant about them. I am weak. I always do this. I was never going to manage it. Those sentences do more damage than the night did. It is a model rather than a measured effect, it was built in smoking and drinking research, and nobody has tested it here. So the useful question the morning after is a small one: what am I doing in the next two hours? Day-sized questions are the ones anybody can answer. ## What gets you to day ten Three things, and trying harder is not one of them. Take the easy path away while calm, so the decision is not waiting at midnight. Choose the response in advance and write it where you will see it. And keep marking the days, bad ones included: a month with four bad days in it is still a month with twenty-six good ones, and that is invisible if the page gets thrown away every time. If the last app you tried came off your phone inside a week, that is a separate problem: [why porn blockers stop working](https://monkereset.com/why-blockers-fail). How long this takes, with the measured median and range, is in [how long it takes to break a habit](https://monkereset.com/blog/how-long-to-break-a-habit). If the thing you keep quitting is the plan rather than the porn, that is the majority, and the one trial that measured it is in [most people quit the programme, not the porn](https://monkereset.com/blog/most-people-quit-the-programme-not-the-porn). ## What the next three days are for Asked why they are doing this, people almost never say "to be a better person". The answer is specific, and usually something they used to have: the grades they used to get, a plan they keep not starting, something they were good at before their attention went elsewhere. The next three days are for that, not for day ninety. --- You have just read everything on monkereset.com. 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