How to block YouTube

YouTube raises a problem TikTok doesn’t: part of what you do there is useful. A tutorial, a lecture, a bike repair — and, in the same app, a Shorts feed that works exactly like TikTok’s. Here is how to block the app, the website, or both, with the steps of each method and the button that gets around it.

First: separate deliberate from reflex

No system can block one section inside an app: neither iOS nor Android, so no blocker either. You can’t close Shorts while leaving long videos open. What you can do is move deliberate use out of the app: app under lock, website open. What you look up on purpose gets watched on youtube.com in the browser — no infinite feed on launch, and no reflex tap from the home screen. The steps below block the app; the website has its own step, to take only if the browser becomes the loophole in turn.

1. On iPhone, with Screen Time

1. Open Settings, then Screen Time.
2. Tap App Limits, then Add Limit.
3. Search for YouTube in the field at the top of the list and tick it — or tick the whole Entertainment category to take Netflix and Twitch with it. Then Next.
4. Set the time. For a full block, choose 1 minute, the smallest allowed.
5. Make sure Block at End of Limit is on, then Add.

For the website too: Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → Web Content → Limit Adult Websites, then add youtube.com under “Never Allow”. Safari will show a restriction page instead.

Once the limit is hit, the app opens on a screen that offers Ignore Limit — “One More Minute”, “Remind Me in 15 Minutes”, “Ignore Limit for Today”. To close that door: Settings → Screen Time → Lock Screen Time Settings, and a four-digit passcode typed by someone else. The limit resets every night.

2. On Android, with Digital Wellbeing

1. Open Settings, then Digital Wellbeing & parental controls.
2. Tap the chart at the top, or Show your data.
3. In the list, tap the hourglass to the right of YouTube.
4. Pick the shortest time offered, then OK.

When the time is up, YouTube shows “App paused” until midnight. The workaround is two taps away on that same screen, and Digital Wellbeing has no passcode to protect it from you; the only lock is Family Link. It has no website blocking either: youtube.com in Chrome stays open. On Samsung the same page is called “Digital Wellbeing and parental controls”, under “App timers”.

3. With Tempo: shut by default, reopened by moving

Both system settings leave an “ignore” button. Tempo replaces that button with a condition: YouTube stays shut while your screen-minute balance is at zero, and that balance only fills by moving — running, walking, the gym, cycling, at the exchange rate you chose.

1. Install Tempo from the App Store or Google Play.
2. On first launch, allow Health (to read your workouts and steps) and Screen Time (to block). On Android the permissions are called “usage access” and “display over other apps”; Tempo says where to find each one.
3. Tick YouTube in the list of apps to lock — or the whole Entertainment category, future apps included. The number of apps and categories is unlimited, free version included.
4. On iPhone, the same picker offers websites: add youtube.com if you want the browser shut too. On Android, blocking covers apps only for now.
5. Pick your rate: a generous one (×3) beats a total block here — twenty minutes of walking reopen an hour, enough to watch what you came for.

While the balance is positive, YouTube opens normally; watching drains the balance by the minute; at zero the app shuts — on iPhone, iOS applies the re-block, even with Tempo closed. On a 44-minute session measured on device, 43 minutes were charged: the count follows the system’s Screen Time, not an estimate. With no watch, your steps are the currency: a thousand steps are worth about ten minutes of walking. Workouts typed by hand into Health or Health Connect are excluded. In the free version, spending is capped at 60 screen minutes a day.

The limit worth knowing

Tempo only works on the phone it is installed on. The TV, the laptop, the living-room tablet escape it. If most of your video time happens somewhere other than this phone, Tempo isn’t the tool: it counts this phone’s screen time, and it is better to know that before installing than after.

Frequently asked questions

Can I block Shorts and keep the rest of YouTube?

No: neither iOS nor Android can block a section inside an app. The block covers YouTube as a whole. The sensible workaround is to keep youtube.com in the browser for deliberate viewing, and put the app under lock.

How do I block every video app at once?

The system picker offers whole categories, not just apps: choosing “Entertainment” puts YouTube, Netflix and Twitch under the same key. That’s free and uncapped in Tempo.

How do I block youtube.com in Safari?

Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → Web Content → Limit Adult Websites, then youtube.com under “Never Allow”. With Tempo, the same website is added to your selection from Apple’s picker, and reopens with your balance.

What if I watch YouTube on my TV or laptop?

Tempo doesn’t see them: it only works on the phone it’s installed on. That’s a real limit, and the reason Tempo counts that phone’s screen time rather than your video time in general.