Can Parents See the Websites Visited on an iPhone?

By default, your iPhone stores your Web history directly in the Safari app. To access the history, you must open the app and tap on the Bookmarks button at the bottom, which looks like an open book. Tap on "History" to see a full list of websites that you have visited on the phone, sorted by date. Unless your phone is locked with a passcode, your parents have easy access to the Safari history.

If you want to prevent access to your Web history, you can delete it permanently from your iPhone. Tap on the "Settings" icon and select "Safari." Scroll down until you see a link called "Clear History." To clear the history, tap on the link once and again to confirm that you want to permanently delete the information. For extra security, you can tap "Clear Cookies and Data" to rid your iPhone of all identifying information.

The iPhone stores additional website data in a section that is easily accessible but more difficult to find; if you're aware of the section, it is easy to find a list of visited websites even when the history has been cleared. In the "Safari" menu, scroll all the way down the page and tap on "Advanced" and "Website Data." There, you'll find a list of websites from which your phone has stored information, along with the size of the file. Although the list is not comprehensive or organized by date, it can reveal a great deal about the websites you visit. To delete selected listings, click the "Edit" button and then the red minus sign button next to the URL. To erase all of the data, choose "Remove All Website Data."

Manually removing history is quick, but it is an easy task to forget. To help reduce the risk of accidentally disclosing your Web history to third parties, enable Private Browsing on your iPhone. Open Safari and click the "new page" icon at the bottom of the screen. Tap on "Private" and choose "Close All" to get rid of your current open windows. From that point on, the websites you visit will not be added to your iPhone's history.