SafeSearch is a search feature onGoogle, and later,Microsoft Bing.[1] It is an automated filter ofpornography,violence, gore, and other offensive or inappropriate content.[2] It is used as aparental control setting due to the feature being, most likely, to keep children fromharmful content.
On November 11, 2009,Google introduced the ability for users with Google Accounts to lock on the SafeSearch level in Google's web and image searches. Once configured, apassword is required to change the setting.[3]
On December 12, 2012, Google removed the option to turn off the filter entirely, requiring users to enter more specificsearch queries to access adult content.[4][5][6]
SafeSearch can be enforced bylocal area network administrators andISPs by adding a DNS record. This is often done on school networks to prevent students from accessing pornographic content.[7][8]
Users themselves can turn this setting on to filter out any inappropriate content.[9]
A report byHarvard Law School'sBerkman Center for Internet & Society stated that SafeSearch excluded many innocuous websites fromsearch-result listings, including ones created by theWhite House,IBM, theAmerican Library Association andLiz Claiborne.[10]
On the other hand, many pornographic images slip through the filter, even when "innocent" search terms are entered.
Blacklisting certain search terms is hindered byhomographs (e.g., "beaver"),[11]blacklisting certainURLs is rendered ineffective by the changing URLs of porn sites, and software to tag images with copious amounts of flesh tones as pornographic content is problematic because there are a variety of skin tones and pictures of babies tend to have a lot of flesh tones.[12]
Google's ability to filter porn has been an important factor in its relationship with thePeople's Republic of China.[13]
On July 11, 2022, Iranian users noticed that Google's locked SafeSearch (designed for users under 13) was enabled on their mobile Internet for all users. This feature is actually a new intelligent Internet filtering system that hijacks all DNS requests with Google addresses and even Microsoft's Bing search engine so that the returned IP from DNS is 216.239.38.120 (for Google) and 131.253.33.220 (for Bing).
Iran's Minister of Communications, Issa Zarepour, described the mandatory SafeSearch activation as a demand from families. In a poll with 41,299 votes, 88.2 percent of participants opposed mandatory SafeSearch. This seems to be the beginning of the adoption of the protection plan.
