Blocking YouTube on an iPhone is easy. Blocking YouTube properly is the part people get wrong — because YouTube isn't one thing on your phone. It's an app, a full website, an autoplaying short-form feed, an embedded player inside other apps, and a search result. Close one door and the habit finds the next one, usually within about a day.

Here's each route, and how to close all of them.

Option 1: Apple's Screen Time (free, leaky)

Block the YouTube app

  1. Settings → Screen Time → App Limits → Add Limit
  2. Choose Entertainment, or tap the category open and select YouTube specifically
  3. Set the limit to 1 minute — effectively a block
  4. Turn on Block at End of Limit
  5. Set a Screen Time passcode under Settings → Screen Time → Lock Screen Time Settings

Block the YouTube website

The app limit does nothing to youtube.com, so:

  1. Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions (turn it on)
  2. Content Restrictions → Web Content → Limit Adult Websites
  3. Under Never Allow, add youtube.com and also m.youtube.com

Where this leaks

Be clear-eyed about what you've actually built:

  • One More Minute and Ignore Limit. When the app limit hits, iOS offers to extend or ignore it. Without a passcode, neither asks you anything. With one, you know the passcode.
  • Web restrictions are Safari-first. Content restrictions behave inconsistently in third-party browsers, and a browser you install afterwards can be an open door.
  • Embeds still play. A YouTube video linked from a messaging app, a newsletter, Reddit or a search result frequently opens in an in-app browser or player that never touches your restriction.
  • Google search results. The video thumbnails on a search page are their own entry point.
  • It's a per-decision system. Every block is a prompt, and a prompt is a negotiation you have to win again at the worst time of day.

Screen Time is genuinely useful as a first layer. It is not a wall, and the gap between what it looks like and what it does is where most people's attempts quietly fail.

Option 2: A dedicated blocker (what closes the gaps)

What you actually want is a block that behaves the same regardless of which door you approach from:

The app, blocked on a schedule rather than a budget. A one-minute daily limit still means a daily prompt. A schedule — blocked 09:00–12:00, blocked after 22:00 — doesn't ask, because the decision was made in advance, on a calm Sunday, rather than in the moment.

The domain, blocked across every browser. Not just Safari. youtube.com, m.youtube.com, youtu.be — blocked whether you open them in Safari, Chrome, Firefox, DuckDuckGo, or a browser you install next month to get around it. This is the single biggest difference between a real block and a speed bump, and it's why Appblox blocks a custom domain list at browser level rather than only handling apps.

The category, so it doesn't just migrate. If you block YouTube alone, the twenty minutes goes to TikTok, then Instagram Reels, then whatever's next. The want is for something to watch, not for YouTube specifically. Blocking the whole Entertainment or Social category closes the substitution loop.

Background enforcement. The block has to hold when the blocking app is closed. Anything that depends on you keeping a second app open is a reminder, not a restriction.

About Shorts specifically

Shorts deserves separate treatment, because it's a different behaviour wearing the same logo. Long-form YouTube is at least usually chosen — you went to watch a specific thing. Shorts is an infinite feed with autoplay, and it's the part of YouTube that most reliably eats an hour you didn't intend to spend.

YouTube's own in-app settings let you turn off Shorts in the home feed, and that's worth doing. But it's a preference inside an app you control, which means it takes two taps to undo, and the version that survives a bad evening is an external block on the app or category rather than a setting inside it.

If you specifically want long-form and specifically don't want the feed, the most effective practical setup most people land on is: block the app entirely, keep the website blocked on mobile, and watch YouTube deliberately on a laptop or TV where the short-form pull is much weaker.

The setup that actually holds

If you want one recommendation rather than a menu:

  1. Schedule the block for the windows that matter — work hours, the evening after 22:00, the first hour awake. Not a daily minute budget.
  2. Block the category, not just YouTube, so the habit has nowhere to move.
  3. Block the domains across all browsers, or the app block means very little.
  4. Leave a deliberate window open — an hour in the evening, say. An all-or-nothing block gets removed entirely on the first day you need to look something up; a block with a designed gap survives.
  5. Charge the phone outside the bedroom. No software required, and it removes the two worst windows in one move.

The test of a blocking setup isn't how strict it is on the day you set it up. It's whether it's still in place in six weeks. Strictness you resent gets uninstalled; a schedule you agreed with doesn't.

Frequently asked questions

How do I block YouTube on my child's iPhone? Use Screen Time through Family Sharing rather than on-device settings, and set the Screen Time passcode yourself. Recent iOS versions let a parent suppress the "One More Minute" bypass on a managed child device — that option is the meaningful one, and it exists only on the parent-managed path.

Can I block YouTube but keep it available for work? Yes, and it's usually the better setup. Schedule the block around the hours you need it rather than blocking it outright — an unblockable rule you break is worse than a modest one you keep.

Why can I still watch YouTube videos after blocking the app? Because links from messages, newsletters, Reddit and search results open in in-app browsers or embedded players that don't respect an app limit. Blocking the domains across all browsers is what closes that path.

Does deleting the app work? Partly, and it's a good first step — but the mobile website is fully functional, so deleting the app without blocking the domain mostly just moves the habit into Safari.

How do I block only Shorts? You can disable Shorts in YouTube's own settings, but it's a preference you can undo in seconds. For anything durable, block at the app or category level from outside YouTube.