Last updated:
4 days ago
Firefox for macOS doesn't currently support the website restrictions configured through macOS parental controls. This means that blocking websites through Screen Time on your Mac won't automatically block those websites in Firefox.
This article explains how to prevent children from using Firefox, block websites or filter website content in Firefox that may be offensive or inappropriate for childrenparental controls work in Firefox on macOS and what other options are available.
Parental controls and web filtering software
Firefox checks the parental controls on your computer and sets itself to Prefer:Safe mode. This automatically turns on the safety feature on each website your child visits, as long as you have the parental controls active on your computer.
This feature can be turned off only through your password-protected parental settings on your operating system, so your child will not be able to deactivate this feature through the browser.
To turn on parental controls on your computer, please see the support documentation for your operating system or see the following:
- Getting started with Microsoft Family Safety at microsoft.com.
- Set up family features on Windows 10 at microsoft.com.
- Set up Family Safety at microsoft.com.
- How To Use Parental Controls in Windows 7 at howtogeek.com and Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls at microsoft.com.
Firefox can detect certain parental control settings on your Mac and enable a preference called Prefer. This signals to websites that you prefer safer content, but it only works when a website supports and respects that preference.
If you need to restrict access to specific websites, don't rely on macOS Screen Time settings alone to enforce those restrictions in Firefox.
To turn on parental controls on your computer, please see the support documentation for your operating system or see the following:
In addition to parental controls built into your operating system, third-party software is also available. For a list of web filtering software, see Comparison of content-control software and providers at wikipedia.org.
Web filtering extensions for Firefox
Some Firefox extensions can help filter or block website content.
This addons.mozilla.org search for parental control lists several extensions that can provide content blocking.
Based on information from Parental controls (mozillaZine KB)
