If you manage accounts, devices, or networks, SafeSearch can help you filter explicit content from Google search results. If you want to keep SafeSearch on and prevent users from changing the setting, you can lock SafeSearch.
Important: This article is intended for people who manage SafeSearch settings for others. To change SafeSearch settings for your personal account, follow the steps to filter or blur explicit results using SafeSearch.
What you can lock SafeSearch for
- Accounts you manage as a parent, guardian, or school administrator
- Devices you manage including Chromebooks, Windows, Mac, and Linux
- Networks you manage at school, work, or home
Lock SafeSearch for devices you manage
If you want to lock SafeSearch on another device that you manage, like a PC or Macbook, you can map Google domains to forcesafesearch.google.com.
This option is recommended if you have a technical background.
Map google domains to forcesafesearch.google.com
This method leverages SafeSearch VIP to force all users on your network to use SafeSearch on Google Search while still allowing a secure connection via HTTPS. The VIP in SafeSearch VIP refers to a Virtual IP, which is an IP address that can be routed internally to multiple Google servers. We will serve SafeSearch results for all requests that we receive on this VIP, which includes:
- Google Search
- Image search
- Video search
It works for all browsers on your device and users who are administrators on the device can undo this change. To make this change, follow these steps:
Open your hosts file
- In Windows, click the Windows key.
- Enter
Notepad.
- Right click Notepad
Run as Administrator.
- When the Windows asks whether you want to make changes, click Yes.
- In Notepad, open your hosts file.
- In most Windows installations, this is located at: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Save your hosts file
- To open “Command Prompt,” click the Start menu.
- Enter
cmd.
- Press Enter.
- Enter the command
ping forcesafesearch.google.com.
- Note the IP address.
- Example IP address: 216.239.38.120.
- Create an entry at the end of hosts file with the IP address that you obtained. For example:
216.239.38.120 www.google.com #forcesafesearch.
- Copy this line for any other Google country or region domains that your users may use, like www.google.co.uk.
- Save the hosts file.
To confirm SafeSearch filtering is on, go to google.com/safesearch. Check that SafeSearch filtering is on by default and can't be turned off.
Tip: If Windows is installed in a different location on your PC, you can find the hosts file by entering the following command in Command Prompt: cd /d %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc.
- Open Terminal.
- Enter the command
ping forcesafesearch.google.com.
- Note the IP address.
- Example IP address:
216.239.38.120.
- Enter the command
sudo nano /private/etc/hosts.
- Create an entry at the end of the hosts file with the IP address that you obtained. For example:
216.239.38.120 www.google.com #forcesafesearch.
- Copy this line for any other Google country or region domains that your users may use, like www.google.co.uk.
- Save the hosts file.
To confirm SafeSearch filtering is on, go to google.com. Check that SafeSearch filtering is on by default and can't be turned off.
- Open Terminal.
-
Enter the command ping forcesafesearch.google.com.
- Note the IP address.
- Example IP address:
216.239.38.120.
- Enter the command
sudo nano /etc/hosts.
- Create an entry at the end of the hosts file with the IP address that you obtained. For example:
216.239.38.120 www.google.com #forcesafesearch.
- Copy this line for any other Google country or region domains that your users may use, like www.google.co.uk.
- Save the hosts file.
To confirm SafeSearch filtering is on, go to google.com. Check that SafeSearch filtering is on by default and can't be turned off.
Lock SafeSearch for a school, workplace, or home network
If you manage a school, workplace, or home network, you can force SafeSearch filtering on for all browsers and devices using your network. This applies the SafeSearch Virtual IP address to all Google domains that you include in the configuration and can't be undone at the browser level.
To force SafeSearch filtering on for your network:
- You must update your DNS configuration.
- Set the DNS entry for www.google.com (and any other Google country or region domains that your users may use) to be a CNAME for forcesafesearch.google.com.
Report explicit content
If you have SafeSearch turned on and you find explicit content, you can report the content.
Related resources
Run as Administrator.