How to Block Porn on Every Device: A Step by Step Setup Guide

By Coach Nick  •  6 min read

Blocking porn on your devices is not a permanent solution on its own, but it is one of the most important structural changes you can make in the first days of quitting. It removes the easy access point that makes acting on an urge nearly effortless, and forces a pause between the impulse and the action.

That pause is where most urges die. They require almost no friction when access is one tap away. Add friction, and a significant proportion of urges simply pass without acting on them.

Why blocking matters even when you could get around it

Some men dismiss content blockers because they know they could find a way around them. This misses the point. The goal of blocking is not to make pornography technically inaccessible forever. The goal is to remove the path of least resistance so that acting on an urge requires a deliberate decision rather than a reflex.

Desktop and laptop setup

Cold Turkey is the most effective desktop blocker for this purpose. It is more difficult to disable than browser-based extensions because it operates at the operating system level rather than the browser level.

1. Download Cold Turkey from getcoldturkey.com
2. Install it and add pornography related domains to your blocked list. The app has a built-in adult content category you can add with one click.
3. Set the blocking schedule to always on, not just during specific hours
4. Enable the lock feature so the block cannot be disabled without the password. Have someone else set the password, or set it to something you will genuinely not remember
5. Also install a browser extension as a secondary layer. uBlock Origin is reliable and free

Phone setup: iOS

1. Open Settings and go to Screen Time
2. Tap Content and Privacy Restrictions and enable it
3. Tap Content Restrictions, then Web Content
4. Select Limit Adult Websites
5. Set a Screen Time passcode that is different from your phone passcode. Have someone else set it if possible
6. Additionally, download the BlockSite app from the App Store for a second layer of filtering on Safari and Chrome

Phone setup: Android

1. Download BlockSite from the Google Play Store
2. Enable the accessibility permission it requests, this allows it to block content across all browsers
3. Add adult content categories and specific sites to the block list
4. In BlockSite settings, enable the option to require a password to change settings
5. Separately, go to your phone Settings, Digital Wellbeing, and enable SafeSearch in Google to filter search results

Router level filtering

Router level filtering blocks content across all devices on your home network, including smart TVs, tablets, and any device connected to your WiFi. It is the strongest layer of protection and the hardest to accidentally bypass.

1. Log into your router admin panel. The address is typically 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, printed on the bottom of your router
2. Find DNS settings or Parental Controls
3. Change your DNS server to 1.1.1.3 and 1.0.1.3, which are Cloudflare’s family protection DNS servers that filter adult content automatically
4. Save the settings and restart the router

Handling incognito mode

Incognito mode does not bypass content blockers that operate at the operating system or DNS level. Cold Turkey and router-level filtering both block content in incognito. Browser extension-only blockers do not. This is why having at least one non-browser layer of protection is important.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

Set up blocking on every device today, before the next urge arrives. A setup that takes 30 minutes now can prevent hundreds of moments of unnecessary temptation over the next months. Do not wait until you feel like you need it. You will feel like you need it when you are least equipped to set it up.

Blocking is one layer of environmental control. The full environmental setup guide is covered in our post on setting up your environment to avoid porn triggers.