Google Parental Controls: How to Make Google Safer for Your Kids

Learn how to use Google parental controls

By
Andy O'Donnell
Andy )'Donnell
Andy O'Donnell
Writer
  • Auburn University
Andy O'Donnell, MA, is a former freelance contributor to Lifewire and a senior security engineer who is active in internet and network security.
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Updated on October 29, 2021

What to Know

  • To turn on SafeSearch, go to Google's search settings page and check Filter explicit results.
  • Lock this setting by selecting the Lock SafeSearch link. Log in to your Goggle account if necessary and make sure the toggle is on.
  • If you have more than one web browser on your computer, you need to lock SafeSearch on each one.

Kids love the all-knowing Google but sometimes they can take a "wrong turn" on Google and end up where they shouldn't be. Google has parental control features that parents can implement to help reduce the unsuitable content that ends up in search results.

How to Enable Google SafeSearch

To turn on Google SafeSearch, visit http://www.google.com/preferences

  1. From the "Search Settings" preferences page, place a check in the box with the label Filter explicit results.
  2. To lock this setting so that your child can't change it, click the Lock SafeSearch link. If you are not already logged in to your Google account, you will need to do so in order to lock SafeSearch to the "on" position.

If you have more than one web browser on your system, you will need to perform the Lock SafeSearch process above for each of the browsers. Also, if you have more than one profile on your computer (i.e. your child has a separate user account to log into a shared computer) then you will need to lock down the browser from within the child's profile. Cookies must be enabled for this feature to work as well.

When you have successfully turned SafeSearch either on or off, you will receive a confirmation message in your browser.

If you want to check the status of SafeSearch to see if your child has somehow disabled it, look at the top of any search results page in Google, you should see a message near the top of the screen that says that SafeSearch is locked.

There are no guarantees that SafeSearch will block out all bad content, but it is at least better than not having it turned on. There is also nothing to prevent your child from using a different search engine to find bad content. Other search engines such as Yahoo, have their own SafeSearch-like features that you can enable as well. Check their support pages for information on their parental control offerings.

Enable SafeSearch on Mobile Devices

In addition to your computer, you will probably also want to enable SafeSearch on any mobile device that your child uses regularly, such as your smartphone, iPod touch, or tablet. For instructions on how to enable SafeSearch on a variety of mobile devices check out Google's SafeSearch Mobile support page.

As we all know, kids are going to be kids and try to test their boundaries. We put up one roadblock and they go around it. It's a constant cat and mouse game and there will always be some internet door that we as parents forget to lock, and that will be the one that the kids get through, but we do the best we can.

What Is Google SafeSearch?

Google SafeSearch is one of the primary parental control options offered by Google to help parents police search results. SafeSearch helps to filter explicit content out of search results. It is mainly designed to target sexually explicit material (images and videos) and not violent content.

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