Restrict an Adult's iPhone with Supervised Mode
Unlock powerful restrictions for an Adult's iPhone or iPad using Supervised Mode. Ensure website and app restrictions aren't bypassed.
Apple's Supervised Mode is a powerful feature that can be enabled on an iPhone or iPad to unlock additional restrictive capabilities on an adult's device. It's an ideal solution for adults who want to restrict how they use their own iPhone to block websites and apps and prevent themselves from changing certain settings.
Supervised Mode Capabilities
When an iPhone or iPad is set up as a supervised device, there are additional restrictive capabilities that you get access to. The key difference between Supervised Mode and iPhone parental controls is that these restrictions can be enforced for an adult. Furthermore, there are some additional restrictions that can be accessed (like controlling the network settings on the device).
VPN & DNS Settings
If you are trying to block adult content on an iPhone , chances are that you (or an app) will customize the DNS or VPN settings to point to a DNS filtering service. Unfortunately, it's normally very easy to bypass this connection by adding conflicting DNS or VPN settings. Apple doesn't provide a way to prevent this on a standard iPhone.
Fortunately, when Supervised Mode is enabled, you can protect DNS settings so that they are locked on to your preferred filtering provider.
Once protected, it won't be possible for an app or the user of the device to add conflicting DNS entries or modify the existing ones. This closes down a critical content filtering loophole.
However, even with DNS settings being protected, a user could still add a VPN app, which sets a VPN connection and bypasses the iPhone's DNS filter.
This is where Supervised Mode is incredibly valuable: you can easily add a restriction that prevents a user or an app from adding a conflicting VPN configuration.
The option to add a VPN is completely removed and apps lose the ability to request this permission.
Comprehensive App Restrictions
One of the best use-cases is to use supervised mode as a powerful iPhone app blocker . Apps downloaded from the app store can pose a serious challenge for content blocking and cannot be reliably filtered.
For example, an app like TikTok can't be filtered to block explicit content, so many people choose to block the TikTok app on iPhone entirely .
Supervised mode can be used to control which apps can be installed from the App Store and added on the device.
When an app is blocked, it's not possible to open it on the device, even if it was downloaded previously. If the app is somehow added to the device outside of the app store, it will still be blocked. It's also possible, but not necessary, to completely disable the iPhone app store .
Web Content Filtering
Apple provides a powerful built-in web content filter that can be used to automatically restrict adult websites and your own list of URLs you want to restrict. It's possible to restrict specific pages in a website without blocking the entire website, which is ideal if you are looking to block adult content on reddit where some sections of reddit need to be restricted without blocking the entire site.
When this web content filter is configured with supervised mode, it can be locked on and cannot be overridden using the corresponding section of Screen Time.
Protect Apps
Most DNS filtering providers will provide an app that establishes the connection to the content filter. This app will usually add a VPN configuration to set up this connection. However, if the app is deleted from the device, this VPN configuration will also be removed, which completely bypasses content filtering.
Supervised mode can be used to protect iPhone apps from being deleted , which completely closes down this bypass technique.
Configuring a Supervised Device
Supervised devices use a unique approach to adding and protecting restrictions. No app is required; instead, config files are installed on the device to add the desired restrictions.
This approach is deeply integrated with the Apple iOS operating system, so it's the most reliable restriction approach possible.
After supervised mode is enabled, you'll use an Apple Config Generator to create these files and add them to your iPhone.
Enable Supervised Mode on an iPhone or iPad
A personal iPhone or iPad must be configured so that Supervised mode is enabled.
The exact steps are out of scope for this guide, so check out our free resource on how to enable supervised mode . This resource will cover:
- Safely reset an iPhone so that supervised mode can be enabled
- Properly restore your iPhone's data in a way that won't override supervised mode
Using the Apple Config Generator to Customize Restrictions
Once supervised mode is enabled on your (or the adult's) iPhone or iPad, you can use the Tech Lockdown Apple Config Generator to customize and add the config files to your supervised device.
This config generator was specifically designed for adults with a few key self-control features built-in (more on this later).
Website Restrictions
Navigate to the Web section of the Apple Config Generator to specify web content filtering preferences. This will lock-on and customize the built-in filter Apple provides (similar to the one you can access in Screen Time settings).
Toggle on Enable Automatic Adult Content Filter to automatically block most adult websites:
When this option is selected, the Safari app will disable the option to start a private browser window. If you find that a website is wrongly blocked, you can add exceptions to the adult content filter. Web content filtering work on most major browsers on an iPhone.
Then, you can add your own list of URLs to block. You can specify a website blocklist that includes full page URLs. This lets you precisely target what you want to block, allowing you to access some pages on a website but not others.
If you are have the adult website filter enabled, you do not need to specify adult websites in your website blocklist. Use this list for additional URLs that aren't classified as adult content.
There are two others options you should consider: Disable internet results in Spotlight search and disabling the ability for Siri to access user generated online content.
App Restrictions
One of the most important areas of the Apple Config Generator is customizing app restrictions to completely block apps on iPhone .
Get started by managing which apps can be installed on the device. You can choose between two modes:
- Allowlist: block all apps other than one you approve.
- Blocklist: block only specified apps.
When using allowlist mode, choose all of the apps that you want to use on the supervised device. Any app not included on this list, even if it was pre-installed on the device, will be removed and can't be opened at all. The only exception is the Phone and Settings app - these will appear even if you don't add them to your allowlist (there's no way to block them).
When you click Add Apps, you'll see some of the most popular apps that are added to an app allowlist. You'll need to select each app you want to be available on the device (even the camera app).
If you aren't able to find your app by searching for it, try changing the country (search defaults to the United States). Some apps aren't available in every region.
If you decided to use the Blocklist approach instead, the first step is to determine if you want to block apps based on age rating. Adjust the slider to change the maximum app age rating allowed. You'll see examples of apps that will be blocked based on the selected rating.
Any app that is already installed that violates the age rating will be removed from the device. It's important to note that the major web browsers, like Google Chrome, are considered rated 17+. Safari is also rated 17+, but it's excluded from age-based app blocking. Many investment, finance, and dating apps are rated 17+. As a result, age-based app blocking might not be a good approach for an adults iPhone.
Once you choose a max app age rating (or none at all), you can customize your list of blocked apps.
Next, you should restrict Deleting Apps and Hiding Apps to ensure content filtering isn't bypassed by deleting the underlying application.
Additionally, you can also customize content controls within Apple's default apps. For example, you can choose to restrict Explicit Apple Store Content, which impacts Apple Videos, Music, News, and Podcasts.
Under the General tab in the Apple Config Generator, you can further customize content restrictions like limiting Movie and TV ratings on Apple TV.
Network Restrictions
Under the Network tab of the Apple Config Generator , you can customize some options for restricting changes to internet connection settings.
First, you should set up a DNS Content Policy and customize DNS filtering rules to block categories of websites and enforce SafeSearch.
Once this is done, you can use the Enforce DNS Settings section of the config editor to lock DNS settings to point to this content policy.
This will ensure that DNS settings aren't changed and that DNS content filtering is used.
There are a few other options to consider as well:
- Modifying Personal Hotspot settings: Some people choose to restrict this, even though it can be quite limiting
- Force WiFi use: If you have configured your home router to block adult content , it might be useful to prevent a supervised device from turning off Wifi and using an unfiltered 4g/5g connection when at home. However, this isn't needed if you have locked your DNS settings to point to a dns filter since this will apply to 4g/5g connections as well.
Restricting Hard Reset
In the general tab, you can disable the ability to Erase Content and Settings using the settings app on the supervised device. This closes down a rare loophole that some people encounter.
Disabling Generative AI Features
The Apple Intelligence features can be turned off and disabled as well. Certain features, like Image Playground and Genmoji are common options people disable:
Protecting Config Files from being Removed
In Config Preferences in the Apple Config Generator, you can choose to enable Removal protection.
You can choose to require a pin to be entered or Prevent Uninstall from the settings app entirely.
Locking the Apple Config Editor
If you are managing your own supervised device, and want to prevent yourself from reducing the strictness of your config, you can lock the editor. Locking the editor will prevent you from reducing your restrictions, but you'll still be able to add restrictions.
First, you'll need to lock your Tech Lockdown profile .
Then, click the cog icon in the config generator to open editor preferences:
Enable profile locking restrictions so that when your Tech Lockdown profile is locked, the editor is also restricted:
If you need to reduce restrictions in the config editor, you'll need to unlock your Tech Lockdown profile.
Syncing Config Changes to your Supervised Device
Once you've customized your config using the Apple Config Generator , click the Sync to Device button to get started adding it to your supervised device.
Whenever you make changes to your supervised config, you'll need to follow these steps to "update" the config on the device.