How to Block Websites on Safari

Blocking websites on any web browser helps in preventing your kids or employees from visiting websites you don’t want them to access. In this article, you will find a fully-explained procedure to block websites on Apple’s Safari web browser.

Safari is the default browser for Mac OS X, as well as iOS. Since its release in 2003, this browser has become the fourth most widely used web browser. The Internet is a wide domain with many websites. If you own a home PC, you want to make sure your kids do not land up on sites, that you do not want them to see. Maybe you do not want your employees to waste precious productive hours in surfing social networking sites. The best way to restrict Internet access is by blocking them using the browser itself. Let’s see how you can do this using Safari.

Blocking Websites on Safari Using Parental Controls
Safari offers built-in parental controls that makes it very easy to block websites. Let’s look at instructions for blocking websites on Safari.

• Open the Application folder on the OS X and go to ‘System Utility’.
• Once you open it, click on the ‘Accounts’ icon present in the System row.
• You will find a button called the ‘lock’ icon at the bottom of the Accounts window. You will need to add a new Account to the system by entering your admin password.
• To add a new account, just click on the ‘+’ sign that you will find in the lower left side of the screen.
• You will see a new window pop up, asking you to enter a name, short name, password, and password hint. Make sure the box saying ‘all admin’ is not checked. If it is, only this particular user will be able to add and delete accounts.
• Now, click on ‘create account’ and then when prompted, click on ‘Turn Off Automatic Login’.
• After you do so, click on the name of the new user. Then, click on ‘Parent Controls’ present on the top of the screen.
• When you do so, you will find a new window and click on the box next to ‘Safari’. Click the ‘Configure’ button present on the right. You will be asked to log in as the new user. When this is done, Safari will help you to configure the sites that the user can access.
• Now, ‘Log Out’ from the Apple menu and log in again as the new user.
• You will have to launch Safari and go to ‘Preferences’ → ‘Security’ from the menu.
• Uncheck the box that says ‘Enable Parental Controls’. You will have to enter the admin password and close the box.
• You should now add all the bookmarks of the sites that are allowed and remove all other bookmarks.
• Go back to ‘Preferences’ → ‘Security’ from the Safari menu and choose the check box that says ‘Enable Parental Controls’. Enter the admin password and lock the changes.

Another Blocking Technique
There is another method that will help you block websites from the PC itself. Whether you are a Windows or Mac user, you must follow the same instructions. Windows users need to go to, or copy paste the following path in the Start Search menu:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\

Mac users, on the other hand, need to go to the Menu Bar → Utilities → Terminal and type the following words:

sudo pico /etc/hosts

or

sudo su

When you type in the paths in either Windows or Mac, you will be guided to the host file. Open the host file using Notepad. You will find the following file open:

Now, below the 127.0.0.1 local host, type in 127.0.0.1 facebook.com or 127.0.0.1 myspace.com or 127.0.0.1 twitter.com. Keep adding the websites you wish to block, one beneath the other. If you wish to block specific parts of the website then, you need to type the following. For example:

127.0.0.1 search.myspace.com
127.0.0.1 profile.myspace.com

Make sure you test each of the sites on Safari, after blocking them. Save the file and these particular websites will be blocked. If you wish to unblock these sites, simply delete them from the host file.