Use web & app filters

Want to block web content or apps on your child’s device that aren’t age-appropriate? With the AT&T Secure Family app, you can.

Get started

Web and app filters apply across all child devices setup under their profile on both Wi-Fi® and mobile data connections. To use web and app filters make sure you have:

The AT&T Secure Family® app on parent devices.
The Secure Family Companion® app on child devices paired to the parent app.
The Virtual Private Network (VPN) must be set on child devices to apply parental controls. When joining Secure Family, the child device is directed to install VPN. Before confirming the VPN installation, devices running iOS 15 or later are prompted to allow the app to find and connect to devices on the local network. Accept this permission to install the VPN.

Review the Secure Family FAQ (PDF, 263KB)

Filter internet access

Use Secure Family Filters to manage a child’s access to internet-based apps and websites. You can set internet filters by:

Choosing an age group filter
- High: Use to block objectionable content like violence, sexual content, drugs, alcohol, gambling, and more.
- Medium: Use to block objectionable content and mature social media, like Snapchat, Tumblr, Whisper, and After School.
- Low: Use to block objectionable content.
- None: Use if you only want to apply location services as this doesn’t include any content filters
Customizing filter permissions
Adding custom website filters

FYI: Apps that run local to your child’s device and don’t use internet may not be blocked. This may include standalone games or videos downloaded before the content filters are applied.

Block apps and websites

You have to choose an age group filter before you can customize filter permissions or add custom filters. Then, you can block by category or enter specific websites and apps to block. Select from up to 28 categories such as:

App stores & downloads
Explicit content
Dating
Online games & shopping
Social media

You can also toggle Safe Search and YouTube Restricted on or off. YouTube Restricted uses Restricted Mode on the YouTube app and website, which restricts the availability of potentially mature or objectionable content when using YouTube. Safe Search eliminates sexually explicit content from search results on Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. Other search engines (Yahoo, for example) will not be impacted by this toggle.

Customize available apps and sites

Change the filter permissions for apps, websites, and categories. Filter permissions can be set to:

Allow: Gives access to the app, website, or category. Parents can track and manage use with other Secure Family Parental Controls.
Block: Blocks access to an app, website, or category at all times.
Always Allow: Gives access to the app, website, or category. It can’t be tracked or managed by Secure Family parental controls.

When apps or websites are set to Block, your child won’t be able to access them. For internet pages, they’ll get a message saying the site is blocked. Blocked apps will show the app has no internet connection, is unable to load, or a similar error message.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Last updated: August 29, 2023