8 Best Porn Blocker Apps in 2023
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March 6, 2023
March 6, 2023
In 2023, Porn Blocker Apps are needed to keep kids safe as the internet has made it easier than ever for them to access inappropriate content unintentionally. Today, the average age when children first encounter porn on the internet is 11 years old. Responsible parenting means keeping kids from growing up too fast by creating a safe environment for them to explore and grow.
That’s why so many parents wonder how to block adults' websites on phones. A good porn blocker can help parents keep their kids safe from unintentionally accessing inappropriate websites. Some even have features beyond what Instagram parental controls and Facebook parental controls can offer.
We’ve compared the best porn blockers to help parents choose the right tools to manage the relationship between their teens or toddlers and cell phones. This list is full of options for parents who want to block websites on iPhones or just limit screen time to reduce the risk of Electronic Screen Syndrome.
Carrots&Cake goes beyond protecting your little ones from stumbling across adult content.
This award-winning app is grounded in the latest research in behavioral neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science. With a 4.85 star rating on the App Store, Carrots&Cake prevents access to adult videos in addition to encouraging kids to develop healthy screen time habits. It reportedly triples kids’ daily educational app usage while halving overall screen time. It’s no surprise the app’s popularity continues to grow.
What sets Carrots&Cake apart is its unique approach to screen time. Instead of offering only ways to restrict kids, Carrots&Cake promotes learning by emphasizing educational apps. Like the time-honored parenting directive, ”Do your homework before you play." Carrots&Cake tells kids, "Eat your Carrots before your Cake.” Kids must first complete learning apps before their device unlocks for free time. It makes screen time both enjoyable and productive.
Their approach has the added bonus of balancing dopamine levels. The app takes into consideration the science around a child’s developing brain. This helps to avoid the tantrums that accompany rigid restrictions.
Carrots&Cake follows an approach grounded in behavioral neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science.
Behavioral Neuroscience
Carrots&Cake promotes healthy screen use by reducing the firing of the brain's reward pathway. Dopamine levels stay balanced. This helps kids remain in control of devices and reduces tantrums when it's time for kids to come off.
Behavioral Psychology
Asking kids to first complete Carrots — learning apps with a high cognitive load — results in delayed gratification. This develops resilience & grit. Kids learn to self-regulate. Motivational interviewing is used to help kids identify their intrinsic motivation and improve behavior.
Cognitive Science:
With Carrots&Cake, kids focus on learning without distractions. Through micro-learning, kids compound knowledge with small but consistent daily effort.
The FamiSafe Porn Blocker App is one of the most comprehensive porn blockers available for parents who want to know how to block inappropriate websites on their phones. It works on nearly any device, including mobile devices and computers. Parents can track social media usage, including TikTok history, and set screen time limits to help children be responsible with their device usage.
FamiSafe allows parents to set keywords and be notified when they appear in text messages, social media posts, and more, so they’ll know when their kids might be talking with friends about inappropriate topics, too. Advanced keyword monitoring alerts parents when they need to have essential conversations with their children.
The FamiSafe GPS features track the child’s location and allow parents to set up geofences, which are designated areas where they expect their child to be, such as school, home, and trusted friends’ houses. Parents receive a notification when their break their routines or leave where they’re supposed to be. Finally, the FamiSafe app monitors the child’s photo and video gallery for inappropriate content. If a child downloads a pornographic photo or video, the app will notify the parents. Parents can
set the controls and forget about them, trusting that they’ll know when something’s up, so they don’t have to go looking for trouble.
It doesn’t get much more comprehensive than FamiSafe’s monitoring.
One of the top antivirus software providers in the world has also created one of the best porn blockers. Norton Family Parental Control helps parents monitor their child’s web browsing, search activity, and YouTube history to keep them safe online. Parents receive a comprehensive report via email or in the Parent Portal to see what their kids are up to in detail.
There are features to help kids stay focused and avoid getting sucked into their devices, too. In addition to safe browsing features, Norton helps kids avoid distractions and focus on their schoolwork by letting parents set and schedule screen time limits and block web browsing instantly.
Of course, in today’s world, disconnecting kids from the internet often means disconnecting them from their classroom. Norton Family solves this problem with a School Time feature that allows you to block distracting apps while allowing access to essential learning tools. Norton Family’s selective app blocking is unique in this way.
Of course, life happens, situations change, and sometimes limits and boundaries need to change with them. If a child encounters a blocked website or screen time limit that they disagree with, Norton Family helps them send a diplomatic note to their parents inside the app, minimizing screen time conflict.
Most porn blockers act quietly in the background, often without the user’s knowledge. Not so with Covenant Eyes, a porn blocker designed for families, friends, and support groups. Covenant Eyes is more than just a porn blocker. It’s a tool to help families handle technology responsibly and break bad browsing habits.
During setup, the user assigns an accountability partner, who will receive periodic reports and instant alerts to inappropriate browsing. Their accountability partner can be a partner, friend, sponsor, parent, or any other trusted, supportive person. Users can have as many accountability partners as they’d like, but they must have at least one.
Covenant Eyes has two browsing sensitivity levels - standard blocking and strong blocking - to help users achieve their goals. If they access a website that’s on the restricted list, their accountability partner will receive a notification. This feature motivates users to avoid inappropriate browsing and builds a connection with their accountability partner. In addition to instant alerts, Covenant Eyes also periodically takes screenshots of the device screen. The app scans the screenshot for inappropriate content, then blurs it to protect the
user’s privacy before sending an image analysis to any listed accountability partners. This app is better suited for adults, but its functionality is so unique, it’s at least worth a peek.
Net Nanny is a powerful porn blocker with additional child safety features you have to see. It helps parents keep their children safe with features like internet filtering and context-based website blocking to prevent intentional and unintentional access to inappropriate content. But Net Nanny is unique in how it chooses what to block and what to allow.
Unlike other apps which rely on a list of inappropriate websites to block, Net Nanny uses context-based information to identify what’s on a page the instant it’s accessed. If a once-safe site suddenly contains adult content, Net Nanny’s real-time filtering will block access before the child can see it.
Of course, sometimes a porn blocker can be a little bit too sensitive and block websites that aren’t actually inappropriate. For example, a recipe website will likely have multiple instances of the potentially inappropriate keyword (chicken) “breast,” as will a website about human health. Net Nanny’s advanced content filter allows legitimate information while blocking sexual content.
Net Nanny has GPS functionality to help parents keep track of their children. Parents can set up geofences, much like with the FamiSafe app, although some users say they’re not as useful in Net Nanny. There are also no screen time tools, so parents will have to look elsewhere to help their kids with excessive browsing habits.
Some porn blocker apps just block inappropriate sites and alert parents when their child attempts to access them, but mSpy does more. In addition to safe browsing, mSpy gives parents access to their child’s browser history and bookmarks to help them identify any potential concerns in their internet activity.
mSpy also logs every Wi-Fi network a child’s phone has connected to. By looking at their child’s Wi-Fi history, parents can get a clearer picture of where they’ve been and what they’ve been doing. For example, if their child frequently attempts to access inappropriate content on a particular Wi-Fi network, parents can be more watchful of the influences in that location.
The app also monitors downloaded photos and videos for adult content, notifying parents when their child has downloaded something inappropriate. It only works on downloaded content, though, so it won’t catch inappropriate images in text messages unless the child saves it to their phone.
It will, however, send parents an alert whenever a child enters text that matches specific preselected keywords. This feature works where many other apps won’t, including inside Snapchat, WhatsApp, and other ultra-private messaging apps, because it uses a keylogger that records typed keystrokes rather than accessing app data.
Of course, that level of security comes at a price. For all these functions to work, though, the app does require jailbreaking or rooting of the child’s device, which is a lot to ask of parents who may not even know how to change age restriction on YouTube. Tech-savvy parents will have no problem, but others may want to look for another app.
While mSpy is a little on the advanced side, Safe Surfer is a much more user-friendly porn blocker for parents who need to know how to block adult content on Google. It’s free to download, installs easily, and only takes a moment to set up.
The free version offers basic porn blocking functionality, but for as little as $5.00 per month, users can purchase in-app add-ons for additional features. The paid versions also protect children from other dangerous websites, such as dating and gambling sites.
It blocks websites by category, making it easy for parents to turn on and off-sites they’re concerned about without thinking up a lengthy blocklist and allow list. But it’s customizable, and parents can manually add additional websites as needed, too.
The parent app generates a simple report that’s easy to read and interpret, though some parents may find it a little slim compared to reports that other porn blockers offer. Still, the streamlined reports are just one example of how easy and fuss-free Safe Surfer is to use. It only works on Android, though, so parents looking for an iPhone app blocker should look elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the trade-off for ease of use is that it’s easy to defeat, too. Tech-savvy children can quickly figure out that they can get around the website blocking by simply uninstalling the app. Unlike other porn blocker apps, Safe Surfer doesn’t have anti-tamper technology to prevent this.
Qustodio strikes just the right balance between solid child safety features and ease of use. It’s one of the most comprehensive parental control apps on the market, and it works for just about any device. Whereas some porn blockers live inside the web browser or are only available on mobile devices, Qustodio works on PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, mobile phones, and Kindles.
On those devices, Qustodio offers real-time app management, allowing parents to block or allow access to individual apps with the press of a button. It also includes enhanced web monitoring, porn blocking, and browser history to help parents gain insights into their child’s browsing habits.
Qustodio’s location monitoring features are some of the best available. It’s one of the only apps that allow parents to see their child’s location in real-time, as well as their location history, all inside the Qustodio parent dashboard. Features like that help parents keep their kids safe online and in the real world.
Qustodio’s call and message management are impressive, too. Kids can still keep in touch with parents when other apps are blocked, and parents can turn on and off calls and texts to individual contacts for truly custom security. Finally, Qustodio helps parents set screen time limits instantly or schedule phone-off times.
| Device | Price/ Plan | Web | Apps | Texting | Social Media | Pics | GPS | Screen Time | |
| FamiSafe | Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Kindle Fire, Chrome, Safari | $60.99/ year | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Norton Family | Windows, Android, iOS | $49.99/ year | X | X | X | ||||
| Covenant Eyes | Mac, iOS, Android, Windows | $16.99/ month | X | ||||||
| Net Nanny | Windows, Kindle Fire, Android, iOS | $79.99/ year | X | X | X | X | |||
| mSpy | Android, iOS | $70/ month | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Safe Surfer | Android | $5.00/ month | X | X | X | ||||
| Qustodio | Windows, macOS, Chromebook, iOS, Android, Kindle Fire | $54.95/ year | X | X | X | X | X | X |
In the sea of internet browsers, how do you shield your children from mature content? Must you manually block such content on all platforms? We delved into this topic with Dr. Adam Pletter, Psy.D. Here's his expert advice:
"My first recommendation is to go into the settings on that individual device and turn off the web browser. Second, be sure to turn off the App Store, especially for younger kids. So they can't just redownload either that same web browser or any other number of web browsers, and so turn off the ability for the child to access the app store. This way, the child will not be able to just download another web browser and access websites without your permission."
One of the most demanding parenting roles today is keeping children safe online. The rapid growth of technology has made the classroom global, but it’s also brought a lot of unsafe influences into family homes. We hope this list of porn blockers has given you some ideas to help limit your child’s access to adult content on the internet.
Each app has its own advantages and disadvantages that should be taken into consideration when making a decision on which one is best for your family.
Parents, it's time to take back control of your kids' screen time. With Carrots&Cake, you can easily monitor and manage the digital activities of your children in a balanced and responsible way that emphasizes learning. The app is built with doctors, teachers, and scientists so parents can trust their child’s online experience will be secure while also helping them develop healthy habits around technology use.
In a world of parenting hacks, make internet safety one of your next parenting projects. And don’t forget to download the Carrots&Cake app to help you make your child’s screen time safer and more educational.
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