You can block apps on your child's iPhone for free with Apple's Screen Time. The main tools are App Limits (a one-minute limit effectively blocks an app), Downtime with Always Allowed (blocks everything except the apps you pick), and Content & Privacy Restrictions (stops new installs and hides built-in apps). Lock it with a Screen Time passcode and most kids can't undo it. Here's how each method works, which to use when, and where a dedicated app helps.
Step 0: Decide how you'll manage Screen Time
There are two ways to set this up:
- From your own iPhone using Family Sharing. Add your child in Settings → [your name] → Family. Then on your phone go to Settings → Screen Time → your child's name. Every setting below is changed from your device, and requests for more time come to you.
- On the child's iPhone. Open Settings → Screen Time on their phone and set a Screen Time passcode ("Use Screen Time Passcode" or "Lock Screen Time Settings"). Use a code that's different from any phone unlock code in the house.
Either way, the passcode is what keeps the blocks in place. Without it, your child can turn everything off.
Method 1: Block a specific app with App Limits
Best for: one or two apps you want gone, such as a game or TikTok.
- Open Settings → Screen Time (tap your child's name if you're on your own phone).
- Tap App Limits → Add Limit.
- Expand a category (Games, Social, Entertainment and so on) and tick the app. You can also search for it.
- Tap Next and set the limit to 1 minute.
- Switch on Block at End of Limit and tap Add.
After a minute of use each day, the app locks and needs your passcode to open. To block a whole group of apps at once, tick the entire category instead of a single app. For a TikTok-specific walkthrough, see how to block TikTok on your child's iPhone.
Method 2: Allow only certain apps with Downtime
Best for: younger children, or times of day when only a few apps should work.
Downtime flips the logic. Instead of picking apps to block, you pick the few that are allowed and everything else locks.
- In Screen Time, tap Downtime.
- Turn on Scheduled and choose the hours. You can set it every day or customise days.
- Switch on Block at Downtime so your child can't just dismiss it.
- Go back and tap Always Allowed. Add the apps that should keep working, such as Phone, Messages, Maps or a reading app.
Phone calls are always possible, so your child can still reach you. Many families use Downtime for bedtime; our bedtime and Downtime guide goes deeper.
Method 3: Stop new apps being installed
Blocking apps doesn't help much if your child can download a new one. This step is easy to forget and important.
- In Screen Time, open Content & Privacy Restrictions and switch it on.
- Tap App Store Purchases.
- Set Installing Apps to Don't Allow.
- Set Deleting Apps to Don't Allow, so blocked apps can't be deleted and reinstalled fresh.
If your child is in your Family Sharing group, Ask to Buy is another option: downloads send you a request instead of installing straight away.
Method 4: Hide built-in apps and restrict by age rating
Sometimes you want a built-in app like Safari, Camera or FaceTime gone entirely rather than time-limited. You can switch those off.
- In Content & Privacy Restrictions, open the allowed apps section and turn off any built-in app you don't want available. It disappears from the home screen until you switch it back on.
- In App Store, Media, Web & Games, you can set an age rating for apps. Apps above that rating are hidden and can't be downloaded. This is a broad filter, so check which of your child's existing apps it affects.
- While you're there, open Web Content and choose Limit Adult Websites to filter Safari. See how to block adult websites on iPhone.
Common problems with blocking apps in Screen Time
Screen Time is capable, but it was designed as a time-management tool more than a strict blocker. Things parents commonly run into:
- "Ask for more time" requests. When a limit hits, your child can ask for more. If you approve without reading, the block is lifted for the day.
- Passcode guessing or watching. A four-digit code typed in front of a child is not much of a lock.
- Settings in many places. Limits, installs and web filters are on different screens, so it's easy to leave a gap.
- Settings that seem to reset. If limits stop applying after an update or a new device, try the fixes in Screen Time not working.
More on the specific tricks kids use is in how kids bypass Screen Time.
A stricter option: block apps with Skydo
Skydo is an iPhone parental-control app that uses Apple's own Screen Time technology (Family Controls). Blocked apps genuinely don't open, because iOS enforces the block rather than a VPN or a profile your child could remove.
What Skydo adds
- Block chosen apps or whole categories in a tap, for example every social media app at once.
- True blocks, not one-minute limits, plus an optional daily time limit and a bedtime for the rest of the phone.
- School Mode: apps are blocked during school hours, except ones you allow, and it switches on automatically on school days. More in blocking apps during school hours.
- Homework Mode: apps unlock for a set time after homework is done.
- Pause all apps for 30 minutes, handy at dinner or when it's time to leave.
- Prevent deleting and installing apps, protected by a parent PIN and Face ID.
- A blocked-attempts count and weekly report, so you can see which apps your child keeps trying.
Managing it from your phone
Pair your phone with your child's once using an 8-character code. No accounts are involved. From your phone you can change bedtime, limits and school hours, or pause everything, and the change reaches your child's phone in seconds. The list of which apps are blocked is chosen on the child's phone itself. Our guide to controlling your child's iPhone from your phone explains the options.
What to know before you install
Skydo must be installed and set up on your child's iPhone, running iOS 26.5 or later. It's free to download, but turning protection on needs Skydo Premium, a monthly or yearly subscription. One subscription bought on your phone also unlocks your child's phone. Skydo has no ads, doesn't sell data and doesn't need accounts.
Which method should you use?
- One or two problem apps: App Limits at one minute, plus Installing Apps set to Don't Allow.
- A young child or a first phone: Downtime with a short Always Allowed list. See first phone rules for kids.
- A child who keeps finding workarounds, or you want whole categories blocked and managed from your phone: a Family Controls app like Skydo.
Whatever you choose, revisit the settings every few months. What suits a ten-year-old won't suit a fourteen-year-old, and loosening rules as trust builds is part of the point. If you're comparing tools, our overview of the best parental control apps for iPhone may help.