SafeSearch is a filter built into search engines that removes explicit images, videos and links from your results. It’s free, it takes a minute to turn on, and it cuts off one of the most common ways adult content shows up on a screen: an innocent search that goes wrong.
Here’s how to turn it on for each major search engine, and why it often doesn’t stay on.
- Go to google.com/safesearch.
- Choose Filter. This hides explicit images, text and links.
Google also offers a Blur setting, which blurs explicit images but can still show explicit text and links. If you want strong protection, pick Filter.
Bing
- Open Bing and go to Settings, then SafeSearch.
- Choose Strict.
- Save your setting.
DuckDuckGo
- Open DuckDuckGo and click the menu, then Settings (or All settings).
- Set Safe Search to Strict.
Yahoo
- Open Yahoo Search and go to Settings.
- Set SafeSearch to Strict.
- Save.
Why SafeSearch keeps turning off
If you’ve set SafeSearch before and found it off later, you’re not imagining it. The setting is fragile:
- It’s stored per browser. A different browser, a new profile or an incognito window starts fresh.
- It’s tied to cookies or your account. Clearing cookies, or signing out, can reset it.
- It’s one click away. The same settings page that turns it on can turn it off, which is exactly what you don’t want in a weak moment.
How to keep SafeSearch on in Chrome
The most reliable fix is to let a tool enforce it for you. Safe View switches Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Facebook search to their strict safe-search modes automatically, on every search, so a reset or a new session doesn’t matter.
It goes a step further on search pages too: adult results and thumbnails are hidden, even ones that load as you scroll. And if an explicit result does slip through, the site itself is still blocked before it loads.
SafeSearch is a start, not the whole answer
SafeSearch only filters search results. It does nothing about a site you type in directly, a link someone sends you, or a page you land on from social media. For full coverage, combine it with a blocker, as explained in our guide on how to block porn on Chrome. And remember to allow your blocker in incognito, since private windows ignore extensions by default.
