A porn blocker that can’t be deleted on iPhone: the two real ways

Written by the developer of The Blocker. Facts checked 21 October 2026. Apple’s menu names can differ with your iOS version and language.

Why most answers don’t fit an iPhone

Most answers to this question are written for Android phones. On your own iPhone, the delete lock lives in Apple’s Screen Time: you switch it on yourself in Settings, or an app switches it on with your permission. So both ways below come down to one question: who can change Screen Time settings?

Way 1: Screen Time’s Deleting Apps setting (free)

This is Apple’s own lock, and it is free. Sit down with someone you trust and do it in one go:

1. Install what you need and remove other browsers first. Once deleting and installing apps are locked, you can’t change your apps without the passcode.
2. Let the other person set the Screen Time passcode. On iOS 27: Settings › Screen Time › Manage Screen Time › Lock Screen Time Settings. Hand them the phone and don’t watch. Apple explains how to create the passcode.
3. Lock deleting apps. Go to Settings › Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions, turn it on, tap iTunes & App Store Purchases, and set Deleting Apps to Don’t Allow. Apple describes this screen as the place to “choose restrictions for installing or deleting apps and in-app purchases”; Deleting Apps and Don’t Allow are the names The Blocker’s own setup step uses. Restrict installing apps on the same screen, so a new browser can’t be added. Apple gives the same steps for iOS 26 and iOS 27.

Now no app on the phone, your blocker included, can be deleted without that passcode.

Decide about passcode recovery before you start. After the passcode, iOS offers Screen Time Passcode Recovery: an Apple Account that can reset a forgotten passcode. Apple recommends that you don’t skip it (Apple). But if the recovery account is yours, you can reset the passcode yourself, and the lock is gone. That is why The Blocker’s own “Make it truly locked” guide says the trusted person should skip recovery when iOS offers it.

Skipping has a cost. A top-ranked answer on Apple’s community forum, from a user and not from Apple, warns that a forgotten passcode without recovery “will entail complete reset of the iPad and starting” again (Apple Community). So pick one plan: they skip recovery and keep the passcode written down somewhere safe, or recovery uses an Apple Account they control (Apple notes it can differ from the one signed in on the phone).

Way 2: The Blocker Pro’s “Can’t delete The Blocker”

The Blocker Pro includes Strong protection. It uses Apple’s Screen Time (Apple’s Family Controls, with individual permission you give in Apple’s own sheet) to restrict your own iPhone. One of its switches is Can’t delete The Blocker. It is on by default as soon as you turn Strong protection on, and the app says: “While this is on, The Blocker can’t be deleted from this iPhone.”

Three honest details:

• It may lock other apps too. The switch is named after The Blocker, but Apple describes the Screen Time setting behind it as one that prevents “the user from removing applications” (Apple developer documentation). Expect that other apps may not delete either while it is on.
• You can switch it off in the app. Turning off Strong protection or Can’t delete goes through your Delay to unblock countdown, if you set one. The delay is Off by default; the choices are 10, 30 or 60 seconds. So on its own, this lock is a pause, not a wall.
• It depends on The Blocker’s Screen Time access. If that access is turned off in iOS Settings, the restrictions are cleared and the app shows “Strong protection is paused”.

In return you get more than a delete lock. Strong protection blocks adult sites (Apple’s adult filter plus up to 50 of your own sites) in every browser, such as Chrome and Firefox, and in links opened inside apps like Instagram or X. Blocked apps keeps chosen apps closed, and Hard moment locks every website and those apps for one hour, with no way to end it early. More on the Strong protection page.

The two locks side by side

The strongest setup: use both

They don’t compete. Way 1 is the lock that holds, because the passcode is with someone else. Way 2 adds the every-browser filter, Blocked apps and Hard moment. For the full setup, including Apple’s Limit Adult Websites filter, read how to make a porn blocker hard to turn off. For the other ways people get around Screen Time, and how to close each one, see Limit Adult Websites bypasses.

What no lock can promise

• The passcode decides everything. Whoever has it, or can reset it with the recovery Apple Account, can turn every lock off.
• A delete lock is not a filter. It blocks no website by itself. The free version of The Blocker blocks adult sites in Safari and in Safari views inside apps; Strong protection adds other browsers and links inside apps.
• Nothing filters everything inside apps. Strong protection filters web pages and keeps the apps you pick closed. It doesn’t filter feeds, images or videos inside apps like Instagram or X.
• No reports. The Blocker sends nothing to another person and has no accountability partner.

A lock turns a two-second impulse into a slow, deliberate choice. That pause is the point.

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