What an app-level blocker can and can't do
BlockerX and its peers are apps. On a phone, an app blocks by using permissions the system lets it ask for — a content filter, a VPN-style tunnel, accessibility access — and by adding friction around removal: a partner who must approve, a timer, a password. Features and prices change, so check their site for what's current.
The structural point doesn't change: what you granted, you can take back. An app is deleted from the home screen. A permission is revoked in Settings. The friction an app adds is real, and it's the best an app can do — but it's friction, and friction is what gives at two in the morning. If you've removed a blocker before, you already know the gesture.
The level below the app
On iPhone and iPad there's a mechanism the app layer can't reach: supervision. It's what organisations use to hand out devices with settings that stick. On a supervised phone, a configuration profile can be non-removable — there's no Remove Profile button — and it can forbid adding a VPN. Nothing on the phone undoes it, and there's no password because there's none to guess.
That's the level SELFCNTRL works at. The filter is a DNS-level category filter — pornography, nudity, adult themes refused for every app and every browser, private mode included. Supervision is what keeps it on. Coming off is a deliberate request from your account, after a cooling-off delay. Free to stop; unable to stop on an impulse. The full mechanism is in what makes a blocker immovable.
What comes with it
- Every device, one account — iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows.
- A lock that only tightens. Adding a locked day or a curfew applies at once; loosening waits twenty-four hours; the floor never drops.
- Night curfews that cut the internet on a schedule, per weekday, to the minute.
- No partner required. No report, no shared dashboard, nothing read or stored — filtering is by category, so there's no history to keep.
- The pace you choose once. Cut it dead, or four locked days a week climbing to seven in six weeks.
- $100 if you beat it. Strip the filter off a device we locked and we pay you on top of a refund — conditions.
Side by side
| Question | App-level blocker | SELFCNTRL |
|---|---|---|
| Where it lives | In app permissions you granted | In a supervised profile below the app layer |
| Removed from the phone by | Deleting the app / revoking a permission (with friction) | Not possible from the phone |
| Adding a VPN to bypass | Depends on the platform | Forbidden by the profile on iPhone / iPad |
| Needs a partner to hold | Often, for uninstall protection | No |
| Reads your activity | Depends on features used | No — category filter, no history |
| Android | Usually yes | Not today |
| Price | See their site | 3 days free, then $16/mo, or $80 for life |
The honest limits
Two. SELFCNTRL doesn't run on Android today. And the lock that physically can't come off — the one we put $100 behind — is on iPhone and iPad, where Apple gives us supervision; on Mac and Windows you get the same DNS filter and curfews, without an equivalent of supervision, because none exists for a personal computer. If your device is an iPhone, the ten-minute setup is in the iPhone guide.
Questions
Is there a free version of BlockerX, or a free alternative?
BlockerX's current plans are on its own site. Free filtering exists — Screen Time, public filtering DNS — and is worth turning on today. None of it is hard to switch off, which is the difference between a filter and a lock.
Why do I keep uninstalling porn blocker apps?
Because they're apps, and apps are removed by the person holding the phone — on the night that person is you at 2am. The fix isn't more willpower; it's a block that lives below the app layer, where the phone itself can't remove it.
Does SELFCNTRL need an accountability partner to prevent uninstall?
No. On iPhone and iPad the profile is non-removable through supervision, and taking it off is a request from your account with a cooling-off delay. No person holds a key.
Is it on Android?
Not today: iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows. The immovable lock relies on Apple's supervision, which is why it started there.