Phones
Lock the phone. Watch the computer.
Unhidden doesn't run on phones, and it doesn't need to. An iPhone can be locked down harder than any app could manage, for free, using what Apple already built in. The one thing that makes it work is that somebody else holds the passcode: your accountability partner, the same man who gets the Unhidden report. This page walks through it. Do it with him in the room, or on a call.
About twenty minutes. You'll need the phone, the person who'll hold the code, and a short list of the websites you actually need.
Why this and not an app
Apps that block things on an iPhone all sit on top of the same Apple feature, Screen Time. When you set one up for yourself, you can also remove it: revoke its permission, delete it, sign out. That makes it a speed bump. Screen Time with a passcode you don't know is a wall, because the phone itself enforces it and the phone doesn't know you're the owner.
It's also free, and there's nothing to subscribe to, update, or wonder about.
Before you start
- Update iOS first (Settings › General › Software Update). Menu names below are from recent versions.
- Decide together which apps and sites you genuinely need. Banking, maps, work, church, weather, messaging. Be honest about what "need" means; the list can grow later, and growing it is a conversation, which is the point.
- Delete social media and any browser other than Safari before locking. Some of the restrictions below hide apps by age rating, but not all social apps are rated high enough to be caught. Deleting them is cleaner, and once installs are blocked they can't come back.
The steps
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Turn on Screen Time
Settings › Screen Time. If it's off, turn it on. If it asks whose phone this is, choose This is My iPhone.
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Set the passcode, and let your partner type it
Screen Time › Use Screen Time Passcode (on some versions, Lock Screen Time Settings). Hand the phone over. They enter a four-digit code twice. You look away.
It will then offer to attach an Apple ID so the passcode can be recovered if it's forgotten. Do not enter your own Apple ID here. That's a back door: "Forgot passcode?" would let you reset it yourself. Either skip this, or have your partner enter their Apple ID, so recovery goes through them. -
Turn on Content & Privacy Restrictions
Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions. Switch it on. Everything from here is inside this menu.
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Block installing apps
iTunes & App Store Purchases (or App Installations & Purchases). Set Installing Apps to Don't Allow. This is the one that matters most: without it, anything deleted can be reinstalled and any new browser can be added.
Consider also setting In-app Purchases to Don't Allow. Leave Deleting Apps as you like; deleting is never the problem.
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Only allow the websites on your list
Content Restrictions › Web Content. Choose Allowed Websites Only (on newer versions, Allowed Websites). Delete the pre-filled kids' sites if you like and add yours: tap Add Website, give it a name and the address.
This applies to Safari and to the built-in browser most apps use when they open a link. It's the reason other browsers should be gone: they follow their own rules.
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Hide apps by age rating
Content Restrictions › Apps (or Allowed Apps by rating). Set it to 12+. Anything rated 17+ disappears from the phone until the limit is raised: most third-party browsers, and apps like Reddit, X and YouTube.
Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok are rated 12+ and are not hidden by this. That's why they get deleted beforehand and installs get blocked. The rating limit is a second layer, not the first.
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Stop Siri searching the web
Content Restrictions › Siri (in some versions, under Web Search Content). Set Web Search Content to Don't Allow. Siri's web results don't go through the website list otherwise.
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Stop the account being changed
Back in Content & Privacy Restrictions, scroll to the section for allowing changes. Set Account Changes to Don't Allow. This stops signing out of the Apple ID or adding a different one, which is the other back door.
While you're there, setting Passcode Changes to Don't Allow is optional but harmless.
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Leave the menu, and try to break it
Go back to the home screen. Try to open a site that isn't on the list. Try to install an app. Try to open Screen Time settings. Each should stop you and ask for the code you don't have.
What still gets through
A locked phone isn't a sealed one. Decide about these with your eyes open.
Things to know
- Images can still arrive in Messages, Mail, and any messaging app you keep.
- An allowed app shows whatever it shows. If YouTube stays, YouTube stays.
- AirDrop and shared albums can bring things in. Turn AirDrop to Receiving Off if that matters.
- Photos already on the phone are still there.
Ways around it, and why they show
- Erasing the phone removes Screen Time. It also removes everything else, and your partner will know within a day.
- A second phone, or a friend's. No setting fixes that; being known does.
- Asking for a site to be added. That's not a way around it, that's the system working.
For the person holding the code
Keep it somewhere that isn't the phone. Don't share it, even when asked nicely at a bad moment. Expect requests to add a site or an app, and treat them as ordinary: a two-minute conversation, then you type the code and add it. Say yes to reasonable things. The lock isn't punishment; it's a door that needs two people to open.
If you ever hand the phone back with the code typed in, change the code afterwards.
Android
The same idea works, with Google's tools. A partner sets up a Family Link parent account and the phone is supervised from there: app installs need approval and Chrome can be limited to approved sites. It's a bit more involved than the iPhone version. A walkthrough for it is coming.
This is the phone half of the answer. The computer half is Unhidden, which watches instead of blocking, because a computer can't be locked like this.