How to block porn on a computer

Mac: turn on Apple's web filter

1. Open System Settings and click Screen Time in the sidebar.
2. Click Content & Privacy, then App Store, Media, Web, & Games.
3. In the Safari row, choose Limit Adult Websites. Click Customize to add sites to the restricted list.¹
4. Back in Screen Time, set a Screen Time passcode and give it to someone else.

It filters Safari. If you use Chrome, Firefox or another browser on the Mac, this setting doesn't follow you there.

Windows: Microsoft Family Safety

Family Safety's web and search filter works in Microsoft Edge for a family member that an organizer manages, and when it's on, other browsers are blocked so the filter can't be bypassed.²

1. Sign in at family.microsoft.com with the organizer account.
2. Pick the family member, open their overview and select Edge.
3. Turn on Filter inappropriate websites and searches.²

Any computer: a filtered DNS

A quick extra layer on either machine is to point its DNS at Cloudflare for Families, which blocks malware and adult content: 1.1.1.3 and 1.0.0.3.³ You set it in your network settings, or once for the whole house on your router. It covers every browser and app on the machine, filters whole domains only, and can be undone by anyone who knows where the setting is.

Where the built-in tools stop

• You hold the keys. Passcodes and admin passwords are fine for a child's device. On your own computer, they're a promise to yourself.
• Nobody is told. Not when something is blocked, and not when the filter is switched off.
• Whole sites only. Nothing built in can remove just one part of a site, or block a word.
• No limits. Screen Time on Mac can set app limits with the same one-click override as on iPhone; Windows has nothing comparable for an adult account.

Where LeadMeNot goes further on a computer

Windows and Mac are where LeadMeNot is most complete: it can read text in browsers and inside apps there, like on Android.

• a built-in Adult Websites & Apps list you switch on once, and a built-in Gambling list, plus any betting app you choose to block, in every browser.
• block the apps you choose on iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac, on Windows and Mac too, not only phones.
• block just part of a site, like youtube.com/shorts or instagram.com/reels, and keep the rest, in browsers and inside apps.⁴
• keyword and phrase rules, inside apps on Android, Windows and Mac, in Safari on iPhone and in Chrome on Chromebook.
• daily limits (iPhone, Windows, Mac) and schedules (every device).
• a partner who is alerted when a rule is broken, and who gets your short evening reflection, and Safe Wall: loosening a rule takes your partner's OK or a waiting period.
• with Monitor on, your partner is told if LeadMeNot is logged out, uninstalled or switched off, and Install & Uninstall Protection on the machine itself.

Set it up in an evening

1. Turn on the built-in filter for your system (above) and hand the passcode to someone else.
2. Install LeadMeNot from leadmenot.org/download and follow the first-day walkthrough for Windows or Mac.
3. Add a partner and set Safe Wall to Approval from partner. On Mac, grant the permissions it asks for; the walkthrough shows each one.
4. Test it: type leadmenottest into any browser. Blocked means protected.