How to Use and Lock Google Safesearch

Google's Safesearch is a filter that prevents most adult sites from appearing in the Google search results. Although it is not 100% accurate and some adult pages will occasionally slip through the net, it is still another fantastic tool that will help parents keep their children safe online.

The filter looks for adult keywords on the pages in the search engine and filters out those pages. here is a brief overview of how it works:

• Looks for adult keywords in the page
• Looks for adult keywords in the whole website
• Looks for adult keywords in external websites that link to this page
  
• Image recognition software to match any images to known adult images
• Checks directory listing that categorize the website
• Safesearch offers a removal tool to request removal of adult results

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So many people misunderstand how it works. so I want to explain some limitations:

• It doesn't stop your child from searching for [ Yahoo ] and then using that search engine to locate adult images
• It is not a general internet safety tool - it is only works for Google search results
• It is not 100% accurate and some adult content will slip through the net
• Some people use it as a replacement for good parenting practices, a disaster waiting to happen.
• It can be switched off by your child - unless you lock it
  

You can find more helpful hubs on my profile here at Hubpages or via my Google Profile

You can lock Safesearch on the computer you are using, however it needs to be done on each web browser you use (Internet Explorer, Firefox) If there are multiple Google accounts then it should be done on each account.

Here is the page where you can set and lock the Safesearch tool -

http://www.google.com/preferences

After you have set and locked it, try doing some searches, you will notice adult content no longer appears. Try re-starting your p.c and you should still be in Safesearch mode.

Don't forget to set this on each web browser you use.

After you have locked the Safesearch filter you should see some coloured balls on the screen when you do a web search on Google.

These coloured balls are very easy to see from across the room, so you know it is still activated without having to constantly sit down in front of the computer. Don't forget that these balls only appear on the Google search results, not on every webpage your child visits.