HT201304: Use Restrictions on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

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starkewj

Q: Is there any way to completely block tumblr.com with the parental controls?

I use parental controls on my son's iPhone to limit the website access that he has. One of the websites I'm currently having trouble with is tumblr.com. Usually in the restrictions you can type in a website "facebook.com" for example and the phone will automatically block facebook and every facebook page. But, because tumblr sites look like "site.tumblr.com" instead of "tumblr.com/site" like most sites, the parental controls do not completely block individual tumblr pages when you put "tumblr.com" in the restrictions.

 

Is there any way around this? I've used services before where you can type in ~tumblr.com and it will block all domains but that doesn't seem to work. Thanks!

iPhone 5s, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Feb 22, 2014 10:09 PM

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Q: Is there any way to completely block tumblr.com with the parental controls?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by JimHdk,Helpful

    JimHdk JimHdk Feb 22, 2014 10:22 PM in response to starkewj
    Level 7 (28,565 points)
    iPad
    Feb 22, 2014 10:22 PM in response to starkewj

    The restrictions for websites can be set to only allow access to a set of websites so you list the allowed websites and everything else is restricted.

     

    See Settings > General > Restrictions > Allowed Content > Websites > Specific Websites Only

  • by starkewj,

    starkewj starkewj Feb 22, 2014 10:25 PM in response to JimHdk
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Feb 22, 2014 10:25 PM in response to JimHdk

    Thanks JimHdk. I am hoping there is a way to block tumblr.com completely without having to turn that setting on.

  • by syversen,

    syversen syversen Dec 11, 2014 9:23 PM in response to starkewj
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 11, 2014 9:23 PM in response to starkewj

    I also have this EXACT same question. I've searched the Internet and can't find anything.

     

    The closest I found was this page on managed domains that seems to give some hints at how Apple _manages_ domains:

    https://help.apple.com/deployment/ios/#/ior25b981c12

     

    But that implies that if you include "never allow" for *.tumblr.com and tumblr.com, that you're set. I've got those, and m.tumblr.com and www.tumblr.com and in testing subdomains still are usually not blocked. What the heck? How do you need to enter it to get EVERYTHING from a domain blocked?

     

    Jason

  • by CraftyZA,

    CraftyZA CraftyZA Dec 11, 2014 10:28 PM in response to starkewj
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 11, 2014 10:28 PM in response to starkewj

    Ok this seems to work.

    Just add tumblr.com as a blocked site under restrictions.

    This is the home page with *.tumblr.com in restrictins

    Works.PNG

    Then I added just tumblr.com

    Settings.PNG

    and now it works.

    broken.PNG

  • by syversen,

    syversen syversen Dec 12, 2014 12:33 PM in response to CraftyZA
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 12, 2014 12:33 PM in response to CraftyZA

    That's what I tried. But that doesn't work if you go to a subdomain that Tumblr hosts. Go delete the restriction and browse Tumblr for a little while to find some sub domains. (hotstuff.tumblr.com or whatever). Then turn the restrictions on and try to go to the sites you identified. You'll find that some will go through fine and others might be blocked, no clear formula in play that I can deduce. It's ridiculous, you'd think the asterisk would actually do something useful.

     

    Jason

  • by CraftyZA,

    CraftyZA CraftyZA Dec 14, 2014 9:41 PM in response to syversen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 14, 2014 9:41 PM in response to syversen

    I'm sure this needs to be reported as a bug. This cannot be by design?

  • by Smokey77,

    Smokey77 Smokey77 Jan 1, 2015 10:00 PM in response to syversen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 1, 2015 10:00 PM in response to syversen

    I'm having the same problem on a family members phone. I've tried everything I can think of (*.tumblr.com, www.tumblr.com, tumblr.com, http://tumblr.com, etc.) and havn't been able to block tumblr sub domains (something.tumblr.com) either.. please let  us know if you find anything else. Apple needs to take a look at this, seems like a bug to me.

  • by Hypernova225,

    Hypernova225 Hypernova225 Jan 2, 2015 12:01 AM in response to starkewj
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jan 2, 2015 12:01 AM in response to starkewj

    What you could do is block tumblr in your router's control panel. I personally don't think blocking website's does anything good though.