How to block porn on a Mac.
The Mac settings below follow Apple’s Mac User Guide for macOS 27, October 2026.
A Mac already has a porn filter built in, the same one the iPhone has. It is free and it takes a couple of minutes. It is also easy to switch off again on a computer you are the admin of, it only knows the sites it has been told about, and the computer is where a lot of the looking actually happens.
This page walks through the Mac’s own setting, says plainly what it misses and what Bramble does about it, and shows how to make it hold at one in the morning.
Turn on Limit Adult Websites
- Open System Settings from the Apple menu, then click Screen Time in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down to find it.
- Click Content & Privacy, then App Store, Media, Web, & Games.
- In the Safari section, choose Limit Adult Websites.
- If a site gets through that you want gone, click Customize and add it to the Restricted list.
Apple’s own description is that it restricts many adult sites automatically.
What the Mac’s filter misses
- It is a list of known sites. A site it has not been told about loads.
- Apple sets it in the Safari section. That is the browser Apple describes it for. If you use another browser on the Mac, do not count on it.
- It does not look at pictures. An image on a page it allows is shown.
- You are the admin of your own Mac, so you can switch it back off from the same screen, unless a Screen Time passcode you do not know is set. That is the last section.
What Bramble adds on a Mac
Bramble for Mac is the computer half of the Bramble app on your iPhone. You need the iPhone app either way: your settings live there, and the Mac reads them.
- It filters the network, so anything on the Mac that goes online is covered, not just Safari.
- It reads the page as Safari loads it, so a picture is judged, not just the site.
- Chrome and Brave get the same in-page check once you connect them. Other browsers are covered by address only, and Bramble tells you which ones are on the Mac.
- Night lock, app blocks and website limits follow you from the iPhone, and none of them can be loosened from the Mac.
You can still turn it off. It is your Mac. If you do, your Keyholder is told this screen lost coverage, and never a site, a search, or anything you looked at. Bramble never takes a screenshot and never reads your files. Bramble for Mac has the full account.
Get Bramble for Mac on the Mac App Store
The Mac’s own limit is still worth turning on alongside it. Two filters that fail in different places are better than one.
The one that holds
Everything above can be undone by the man at the keyboard. The lock has to be a passcode he does not know.
- Open System Settings, then Screen Time. If Screen Time is not on yet, click Screen Time Schedule, then Turn On App & Website Activity.
- Scroll down and turn on Lock Screen Time Settings, with a passcode that someone you trust chooses and keeps.
Apple’s description of that switch is that it requires a passcode to change Screen Time settings, so the adult-website limit stays where you put it. That is what Bramble’s Keyholder is for: the person you ask holds that passcode, and is told if Bramble stops covering this Mac. The keyholder walk-through shows them how.
If it is still there afterward
Settings change what the screen offers. They do not change what you are reaching for. When a man has locked his computer down and still goes looking, it is usually because something else is being eased, and porn is only the fastest thing he found for it. That is not a verdict on you.
The ten questions are one honest place to look at it. Why can’t I stop watching porn is the longer version. On a phone, How to block porn on an iPhone walks the same setting there.