How to block websites and apps on Mac?

Harmful programs or websites can endanger your devices. Necessary precautions have to be ensured to prevent your system from such data breaches. So, company-owned devices must be sufficiently secured to avoid compromising sensitive data. There are several ways to block websites and apps on Mac.

As devices might be either personal or corporate-owned, limits can be established in a variety of ways. Device owners can use the options available in the system preferences or employ a third-party app to make the restrictions. Organizations can use a UEM solution to block apps and websites by blacklisting them and solve many more device management issues too.

Steps to block websites and apps on personal devices

Suppose you don’t want a user to access certain websites. Since it is a personal device,

• You can set up an account with parental controls.
• Then enter the websites you want to allow/block under the Web option in the taskbar of the Parental Controls window.
• Create a user account for them and the system preferences will be implemented.

To block apps on personal devices,

• You go to the System Preferences Menu.
• Navigate to App Limits in the Screen Time section and select the apps you want to block.
• You can also set a specific duration for the apps to remain inaccessible.
• Setup screen time for yourself or for other users in Mac devices.
• If you are using family sharing, select yourself/the user from the popup under the Screen Time menu. If not, you can directly login to your respective account.

Websites can be blocked too under this section. An application called “Focus” can be installed to block websites, webpages and applications easily.

Blocking apps and websites on company-owned devices

For blocking websites and apps on Mac devices that are corporate-owned, organizations can use Hexnode UEM to block/allow websites. It can be done either by deploying a script via the execute custom script action or through the web-content filtering policy. Companies can automatically filter and block websites containing explicit material. Companies can also manually choose the websites that can override this feature. Applications can be blocked/allowed similarly through a UEM solution. The App Management feature allows admins to filter apps, as well as set the mandatory applications for the devices.