If you've decided to quit YouTube or limit your time watching YouTube videos, you've probably uninstalled the YouTube app as a deterrent. However, it's easy to quickly re-activate the app from the App Store and start using it again. Furthermore, traditional blocking techniques may not go far enough. In this article, we'll go over the best strategies to use when you want to block YouTube on the iPhone.

While the iPhone's built-in parental controls can limit YouTube usage, fully blocking it requires more advanced techniques.

Fortunately, it is possible for you to not only prevent YouTube from being installed again, but also disable accessing YouTube in Safari and downloading the app from the App Store entirely. 

Some things to consider when deciding how to block YouTube on an iPhone:

1. You'll want to ensure that you completely block both the YouTube app and accessing the mobile website for YouTube in Safari.
   
2. Do you need to restrict YouTube access on other devices as well? Consider this as you design your system for restricting it entirely. 
   
3. Instead of blocking YouTube 24/7, consider setting a schedule for when YouTube is blocked on your iPhone. 
   
4. Alongside scheduling access, you can combine YouTube content filtering by blocking thumbnails, enforcing YouTube Safe Search, and reduce the chances of seeing NSFW videos with restricted mode.
   

How to Block the YouTube App and Website on an iPhone

You can use the Tech Lockdown DNS Content Policy to completely block both the YouTube app and YouTube website accessed in Safari on your iPhone.

A DNS Content Policy doesn't prevent you from installing the YouTube app, but it will prevent both the app and website from working correctly.

You can connect most devices to your content policy  - not just iPhones. That way, if you block YouTube on our dashboard, you can block YouTube on all of your devices simultaneously.

Another way to block YouTube on an iPhone is to use Apple's built in parental controls . 

You can start off by blocking the youtube.com mobile website, usually accessed in the Safari browser on iPhone.

After adding YouTube to the Screen Time website blocklist, you need to also account for the YouTube app downloaded from the App Store. Blocking youtube.com won't cause the app to stop working.

If the YouTube app is already installed on your iPhone, you can use the Allowed Apps section of Screen Time to disable it.

The problem with this standard iPhone app blocking approach is that the app has to already exist on your device.

If you want to prevent the YouTube app from being installed, you can use Screen Time to prevent any new apps from being installed by setting Installing Apps to Don't Allow.

The downside of the approach is that this will disable the entire App Store and prevent apps from automatically updating. Inevitably, some apps will stop working unless you unlock Screen Time, allow installing apps again, run those app updates, then re-inforce this setting again.

A better approach would be to use Apple's alternative to Screen Time to create App Blocklists.

If you want to disable the entire App Store , you can do this in a better way compared to screen time by still allowing automatic app updates.

Supervising a device can be a confusing process, but we make step-by-step instructions available to Tech Lockdown members.

Schedule When You Can Use YouTube on an iPhone

Instead of blocking the YouTube app on an iPhone completely, consider scheduling when you can watch YouTube videos.

You can schedule YouTube access using the same DNS Content Policy we talked about earlier.

I've enabled a scheduled DNS rule so that I won't be able to use YouTube outside my lunch break.

This includes YouTube, but you can also create a rule specifically for YouTube as well.

If you combine Screen Time settings with your scheduled block rule, then you can further improve your blocking solution by setting an "App Limit" for YouTube:

It's ideal to limit time spent on YouTube in addition to scheduling when it can be used, so combining both techniques together will help minimize the problematic aspects of using YouTube on an iPhone.

Filter YouTube Videos and Searches

If you want to ensure that you don't see NSFW video recommendations on your homepage or in search, you can enable a YouTube Strict mode rule  on your Tech Lockdown dashboard.

If you want this rule to apply to your iPhone, you can connect your iPhone to your content policy .

There are more ways you can reduce distractions. For example, you can remove thumbnails from videos:

Tech Lockdown also provides a rule that blocks YouTube thumbnails. 

There are many more Content Policy presets available (outside of just YouTube) that can help you fully lock down your technology.

If you want to prevent the app from being reinstalled, you can use Screen Time to prevent apps from being installed:

Here's what you should change:

1. Installing Apps: Set this to Don't Allow. The App Store will then be removed from your iPhone's Home Screen.
2. Deleting Apps: Optionally, you can also set this to Don't Allow. We recommend this if you want to enforce a filtering app.
3. In-app Purchases: Optional, but we recommend also setting it to Don't Allow.

If you combine Screen Time settings with your scheduled block rule, then you can further improve your blocking solution by setting an "App Limit" for YouTube:

If you want to prevent the app from being reinstalled, you can use Screen Time to prevent apps from being installed:

Here's what you should change:

1. Installing Apps: Set this to Don't Allow. The App Store will then be removed from your iPhone's Home Screen.
2. Deleting Apps: Optionally, you can also set this to Don't Allow. We recommend this if you want to enforce a filtering app.
3. In-app Purchases: Optional, but we recommend also setting it to Don't Allow.

Screen Time lets you set a Passcode to lock your settings, however, this is not effective:

• The passcode to lock screen time is easy to remember, being only four digits long.
• The passcode can be easily reset by tapping "Forgot my Passcode".

Screen Time was designed to improve productivity - not block apps outright. To get around these limitations, you can use a secondary Apple ID to lock your iOS settings.

We recommend including Screen Time as a part of your full blocking solution. Especially since it's been designed to improve productivity, you shouldn't rely on it to effectively prevent bypass.

Going Further with Bypass Prevention

When it comes to dealing with addictive content online and the subsequent bad habits, we've found that a multi-layered approach is essential. Crafting effective blocking systems is what we focus on at Tech Lockdown.

However, you might need to go further in some cases with more of a focus on bypass prevention.

Here's what I mean by that. For iPhone:

1. Built-in Screen Time features are designed for productivity, and as a result are fairly easy to bypass, especially if you are self-managing.
2. YouTube is very easily accessible via website or app, meaning you will have to block more than just the app.
3. Some people are highly motivated to get around blockers to access addictive content.

In order to add significant friction to help break compulsive behaviors, we've written a definitive guide that goes through concepts like the following:

1. Go much further than Screen Time with device management techniques to enforce restrictions on a device.
2. Increasing accountability and browsing transparency.
3. Preventing uninstall of apps and browsers extensions.
4. Handling common bypass methods.
5. Install the filter on all of your devices.

These step-by-step instructions are made available to Tech Lockdown members in your account dashboard in the guides section.