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How to use Safe Surfer monitoring features for iPhone and iPad

This guide will show you how to use monitoring features that are available inside the Safe Surfer app for iPhone and iPad. (Please note that as of late 2026, these features are experimental in nature.)

Browser Protection

The first monitoring feature is Browser Protection. This feature uses additional technology to perform image filtering (along with text and image monitoring) inside Safari. This feature also supports disabling all images inside Safari (we'll show you how this works later on). If you would like to use this feature, open the Safe Surfer app, tap the Enter PIN option at the bottom, and enter your PIN. On the Protection menu, tap the Browser Protection menu.

Tap the Open Safari button.

If you don't see the Open Safari button and instead see a message that says "Installation Complete", this likely means that you've previously installed the Safari extension on this device (for example, you might see this if you're reinstalling Safe Surfer). You can simply tap the Back option at the upper-left corner and skip ahead to the Screen Monitoring feature instructions.

Once you're inside Safari, if you're protecting an iPhone (rather than an iPad), you'll first need to tap the square and lines icon on the search bar.

On older devices, the icon to tap looks like "aA".

If this is an iPhone device, tap the Manage Extensions menu. Otherwise, for iPad devices, tap the puzzle piece icon found next to the search bar.

Turn on the switch for the Safe Surfer extension. (If the extension is already turned on, this likely means that you've previously installed the extension for the iCloud account connected to this device. If this is the case, you'll just need to turn the extension off and on, which will make it ready to go.)

If the Safe Surfer listing is greyed out, you probably have the Limit Adult Websites setting applied in Screen Time. You'll need to temporarily turn it off by navigating to the Screen Time menu > Content & Privacy Restrictions > App Store, Media, Web & Games > Web Content > set to Unrestricted. You can then return to Safari and try again.

Once the Safe Surfer extension is ready, tap the Tick button at the upper-right corner.

If this is an iPhone device, tap the Safe Surfer extension menu. Otherwise, for iPad devices, tap the puzzle piece icon found next to the search bar > Safe Surfer extension menu.

On the prompt that appears, tap the second option, being the Always Allow button.

On the following prompt, tap the second option, being the Always Allow on Every Website button.

Tap the tick button at the upper-right corner. You can now go back to the device's Home Screen.

Screen Monitoring

The second monitoring feature is Screen Monitoring. This feature uses the device's Screen Recording features to perform text and image scanning across different apps.

IMPORTANT: Screen Monitoring is an advanced feature, where it explicitly informs the device user that everything on-screen is being recorded (that is, for the Safe Surfer app to process securely). Due to how Apple has designed iPhone and iPad devices, this feature is technical in nature. We demonstrate how it works below, but if you think that this could be too confusing for the device user, you don't need to use it. If you decide to not use it, you can skip ahead to the "Settings for monitoring features" section (or step 5). The protection experience won't be affected by leaving this feature turned off. If you're an individual protecting your own device, you don't need to turn on the Screen Monitoring feature, as it's designed for parents monitoring children.

If you would like to use this feature, open the Safe Surfer app, tap the Enter PIN option at the bottom, and enter your PIN. On the Protection menu, tap the Screen Monitoring menu.

There are two menus listed inside the Screen Monitoring menu:

The first menu, "Apps allowed without recording", is a list that excludes apps from the scanning functionality. For example, you might be happy for the Calendar app to not be monitored (and subsequently not affected by the Screen Recording requirement imposed upon most apps).
The second menu, "Force-monitor apps", is a list to manually specify apps that you would like monitored by this feature. We already cover most apps, but Apple requires you to manually specify some built-in apps (for example, the Messages app, which is used for texting).

To get started, tap the "Apps allowed without recording" menu.

For example, if you would like the Calendar app to be excluded, tap the Productivity & Finance section, then tick the Calendar app listing. Once you're ready, tap the Done button at the upper-right corner.

Tap the "Force-monitor apps" menu.

For example, to make sure that the Messages app is being monitored, tap the Social section, then tick the Messages app listing. Once you're ready, tap the Done button at the upper-right corner.

To turn on the Screen Monitoring section, enable the switch found next to "Block apps unless recording".

Go to the Home Screen, where most apps will be greyed out and unavailable (because the Screen Recording system is currently not active). To start the Screen Recording system, tap an unavailable app (for example, the Messages app, which we manually specified to be covered under this system earlier).

Tap the Start recording button.

Tap the Safe Surfer notification that appears.

On the Record section, tap the blue record button.

Tap the Start Broadcast button.

After a few seconds, the Screen Recording system will be active.

Go to the Home Screen, where apps will now be available again. If the Screen Recording system stops, apps will become unavailable again.

Because the Screen Recording system stops if the user locks the device, this can become an inconvenience. Due to this, we have a feature called Pocket mode available on the Record menu. This is a "replacement" for the lock button, where the device will be partly asleep, but the Screen Recording will still be active. You can test this by tapping the Pocket mode option.

You are now in Pocket mode. The device user can use the slider to wake the device again.

To turn off the Screen Monitoring feature, open the Safe Surfer app, tap the Enter PIN option at the bottom, and enter your PIN. On the Protection menu, tap the Screen Monitoring menu.

Turn off the switch found next to "Block apps unless recording".

Settings for monitoring features

To change settings for monitoring features, tap the More menu inside the Safe Surfer app. (If you're not already inside the Safe Surfer app, open the Safe Surfer app, tap the Enter PIN option at the bottom, enter your PIN, and tap the More menu.)

The first section is Safari Extension, which is for the Browser Protection feature. You can find feature notes listed below the switches.

The second section is for Screen Monitoring. You can find feature notes listed below the switches.

Updated on: 01/09/2026

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