Using drawbridge

Who is drawbridge for?

Drawbridge is for anyone who has to carry a smartphone for one reason or another, but does not want to give room or time to harmful and addictive apps and websites. That can be adults for themselves, or parents who have to hand a device to their teenager. For that second group, drawbridge carries age recommendations based on the precautionary principle and with input from paediatricians, neuroscientists and parents' organisations. If you use drawbridge as an adult you can of course ignore those; they are a tool for parents. The rest of this text also holds a few tips for parents.

Anyone with a drawbridge device makes a clear choice: not to carry the harmful internet in a trouser pocket or a handbag, but to keep it to a laptop or a desktop. Some social media genuinely are useful: Reddit and Discord have strong communities where moderation is sometimes strict, but a lot of extremely gory content and toxic comments remain available too. Either way, there is no reason at all to carry that around in your pocket.

Which apps and websites are kept out?

To protect your wellbeing and your device, drawbridge keeps out the following categories: porn, gambling, scams, algorithmic social media, AI companions, games, and dating. Some messenger apps are treated as social media: Facebook Messenger (always blocked), WhatsApp and Telegram (optional, and yours to switch off). Video streaming and YouTube can be switched off separately as well, see below. Note that as a rule every app without a PEGI rating of "all ages" is removed, though some tools are allowed (Strava, for instance). More information on this page.

Every other website and app works normally: tools, office, weather, banking, public transport, school, work, and so on. Most messengers work too: Signal, Threema, Briar, Session. Private mobile communication is, after all, one of the main purposes of a smartphone.

What are trial mode and permanent mode?

Every phone starts in trial mode and stays there unless you change it. It is meant for testing drawbridge, or for using it for a while, and it keeps drawbridge easy to remove. A button at the top of the app, "Make it permanent", closes that door. It cannot be undone from the phone.

Trial mode, unlocked: switch drawbridge off with the button on the app's trial-mode card, then uninstall it. A factory reset works too.
Trial mode, locked: the settings cannot be changed. A factory reset still removes drawbridge.
Permanent mode, unlocked: only a factory reset removes drawbridge.
Permanent mode, locked: even a factory reset is unavailable. Unlock drawbridge first, with the code or the timer, and it becomes available again.

How does the drawbridge app work?

As soon as drawbridge is installed, the device is irrevocably protected against the categories above, and the apps that are never allowed are removed: social media, games, dating, most of what is rated PEGI 7 or higher, and every browser except the allowed ones. That already happens at installation, and it holds until you remove drawbridge (see below). On top of that you can apply further restrictions: switch off WhatsApp, Telegram, YouTube and/or video streaming, set a curfew, go fully offline, have no browser at all, or allow only a handful of apps. Those restrictions take effect only once you "lock" drawbridge. Unlocking needs a code, or you can set a timer. For as long as drawbridge is locked there is no way to change the settings.

The drawbridge app is the control centre of drawbridge. It lets you allow certain apps and websites after all, restrict the internet even further, or turn the phone into something close to a dumbphone. These additional settings only take effect once you lock drawbridge.

Locking

The default policy cannot be switched off while drawbridge is installed. That is drawbridge's baseline protection, and removing drawbridge is the only way past it.

Once you lock drawbridge, the other settings take effect (see below). While locked, the settings can no longer be changed, and in permanent mode drawbridge cannot be removed until it is unlocked.

When you lock it, you are given a code first. This code is different every time, so write it down again each time! The code is what lifts the lock.

Locking for good: the code is deliberately hard to remember. You can choose not to write the code down, and then the phone stays locked forever and ever!
Locking temporarily: you can have drawbridge unlock itself automatically after a period of 2 hours to 40 days, for things like "an afternoon offline to be able to study", "a weekend offline", "a week of camping", "two weeks without an argument about the curfew", a "fasting period" and so on. Drawbridge still shows the code, but here you will probably choose not to write it down.

Additional settings: stop allowing certain apps or services, by switching off the toggles below

Allow long-form video streaming: this allows services such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and so on. YouTube does not fall under this (see below).

Allow WhatsApp: WhatsApp increasingly resembles social media (channels, a chatbot). Because WhatsApp is a necessary evil for many people (in some countries people barely make ordinary phone calls anymore), you can choose to allow it after all. Other chat apps such as Signal, Threema, Session, Briar and so on are allowed, because encrypted communication is a human right. If you are handing the device to a child, know that children under 14 struggle a great deal with group chats, which very quickly turn into cyberbullying and drama.

Allow Telegram: for the same reason as WhatsApp, you can allow Telegram. Telegram is not encrypted, though, and it carries many channels with hardcore pornography, illegal substances and violence. Telegram is therefore recommended from 18.

Allow YouTube: YouTube is social media too. Although its content is strictly moderated against extremes such as nudity, gambling and violence, a lot of harmful or misleading content remains. YouTube serves everything in a highly addictive way, for which Google has already been convicted. The most harmful part of all is YouTube Shorts, which is very hard to tell apart from ordinary YouTube videos and cannot be filtered without either violating privacy or relying on error-prone AI. Because YouTube is so pervasive as a "video library" full of all kinds of useful information (while cooking, while doing DIY, instruction videos, and so on), you can allow it after all. The YouTube choice is all or nothing: it is technically very hard to allow YouTube Kids and YouTube Music but not YouTube Shorts. YouTube Kids is, incidentally, also often short-form video and harmful for a child.

Additional settings: disconnecting, a curfew, or offline for good

Disconnecting is a human right, and drawbridge comes with two options to help you (next to the 'always online' option):

Blissfully offline, always: this effectively turns your smartphone into an offline device. A phone without internet, which can still make calls and send SMS, but not RCS or MMS, so picture messages and group messages do not go through. GPS keeps working, so you can use offline maps and share your location offline by text message. For that we recommend apps such as Organic Maps or Maps.ME. FM radio, where present, keeps working too. Spotify with offline playlists, AntennaPod with offline podcasts, MP3 player apps: all of that is fine. Bluetooth earbuds work as well, of course.

A curfew for the internet: the phone goes offline between set hours, configurable separately for weekdays and the weekend. Do always go online for at least half an hour, so that all updates can come through. That is also useful for updating your Spotify playlist, for instance.

Additional settings: allowing only certain apps, removing browsers, dumbphone-ification

Browser choice: by default drawbridge allows a limited list of browsers that work well with the web filter. We recommend herald, because it is a minimalist browser that shows a clear page when something is blocked and follows drawbridge's policy. You can also choose to use herald mono only: a browser that browses in black and white by default, has only one tab, and is deliberately harder to scroll on and on in. That is a good choice for people with a general browsing addiction (news sites and the like). Finally, you can choose to have no browser at all. Bear in mind that certain apps need a browser to work properly and to log in, for instance. So make sure you are already logged in everywhere before you use this option.

Allowing only certain apps: if you choose this option, app installation is prevented after locking. You can no longer install new apps; existing apps do still get updated, for security. Remove or disable the apps you do not want (preferably leave the Play Store in place, so updates can come through). That way you can build a phone with only the basics: camera, calculator, calendar, maps, public transport, Spotify, and nothing else allowed.

How can I switch off or bypass drawbridge? Other limitations.

Limitations

Drawbridge has both a network filter and an on-device filter, and is therefore about as watertight as it gets. Even so, there are still websites and apps that will occasionally show something harmful, or that can get around a network filter. Do not hesitate to report it.

A consequence of this filter is that you cannot use VPNs or pick your own DNS (the DNS that is used is encrypted and privacy-focused). You also cannot configure other users, use the private space, or create a guest account. For those same reasons you cannot use parental control apps, not even Google Family Link (which, incidentally, only goes up to 13 anyway). Screen time settings on the device do remain possible. Finally, while locked, you cannot use developer settings.

Removing it

How you remove drawbridge depends on the mode. In trial mode, unlock it, press "Deactivate drawbridge to uninstall" on the card at the top of the app, and uninstall it. Nothing on the phone is lost.

In permanent mode the only way is a factory reset. That resets the whole device and loses your data with it. It is effectively the same as buying a new device, but without the money. While drawbridge is locked, even the factory reset is unavailable: unlock it first.

If you have locked drawbridge without a timer and no longer know the code, or have lost it, there is still one way out: in the menu of a locked drawbridge you can choose 'forgot the code'. There you can start a timer of 30 days, after which drawbridge unlocks. This exists to stop anyone accidentally ending up with a worthless device that can no longer be passed on or sold. That is not the intention. The wait cannot be shortened, the unlock date is shown on the phone's lock screen for the whole period, and unlocking with the code before then cancels it: so anyone in the household can start it, and the person holding the code stays in charge.

Checking the time

Parents who use drawbridge for their children have one extra check, to see whether drawbridge has been unlocked or the phone has perhaps even been reset: at the bottom of the phone's lock screen it says that the phone is protected by drawbridge, with the time it was last locked. You can find the same thing in the drawbridge app itself. That time has to match the moment you locked drawbridge for your teenager. If a timer is running, the lock screen counts down instead ("drawbridge unlocks in 3 days") and the lock time is then in the app.

Why not just use parental controls or an app blocker?

Parental controls have a lot of downsides:

They are hard to configure, and there is always some new adjustment to make.
You have to build up expertise in everything that is harmful and everything that can be configured. That is just wasted time.
They are easy to bypass and to remove, even when well configured.
They lead to arguments and conflict, between parent and child, or within yourself.
They spy on the user and may collect data.
They are often not free.
They often have no options such as 'always offline'.

Drawbridge does not use parental controls at all; it is a device policy controller, the kind used for company phones and kiosks. Unlike parental controls, drawbridge comes out of the box with non-configurable protection (the network filter) that already gives very broad coverage. Social media and harmful games are always blocked, no argument about it. That creates an environment of calm without extra overhead. Be aware that drawbridge alone is not enough as "online guidance for a child". A lot more goes into that, and one best practice remains using the internet on a shared screen, where everyone can see and talk about what is happening (not for private conversations, of course).

Why aren't chatbots blocked?

Regular chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini can indeed have harmful effects on the brain with excessive use and by replacing cognitively demanding tasks. It is not that addictive mechanisms are deliberately built into them, and, much like search engines, increasingly strict guardrails are appearing for certain kinds of questions. The bigger problem is how pervasive chatbots have become: nearly every website or service (and search engine!) now has some kind of "assistant" you can ask almost anything. If you would rather not use chatbots, you can choose to have no browser and to allow only certain apps.

Why does my phone say it is 'managed by my organisation' or by an 'IT admin'?

Drawbridge is a device policy controller, and those are normally used for company phones and kiosks. You can ignore these messages.