The setting will become a default for people who don’t already have the SafeSearch filter turned on and as a result, explicit images that appear in Search result will now be blurred by the search engine.
The SafeSearch filter will help users filter explicit content from Google results. Explicit results include sexually explicit content like pornography, violence, and gore, Tech Crunch reports.
By making its SafeSearch filtering on by default for all users, Google is making it easier to ensure that children and teens don’t encounter explicit imagery on their search engine when logged in. However, this service can be turned off by a user.
The tech giant made this known Tuesday in commemoration of the Safer Internet Day. Prior to this update, the filter was already turned on by default for signed-in users under 18.
“SafeSearch only works on Google search results. It does not block explicit content on other search engines or websites that a person visits directly, the report further said. The search engine giant also noted that while SafeSearch isn’t 100% accurate, it helps filter out explicit content in Google search results for all a user’s queries across images, videos and websites.
In August 2021, the tech company turned on SafeSearch by default for signed-in users under 18 which coincided with the time the American Congress pressed Google and other tech companies on the negative impacts their services might have on children.
“Google had last year said it was starting to use AI to improve its ability to remove unwanted explicit or suggestive content from Search results when people aren’t specifically seeking it out,” it concluded.
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