Google will be blurring explicit images by default

Google is introducing a new safety setting that will automatically blur pornographic, violent, and gory images.

That’s good news!

This should help kids avoid accidentally seeing images while using the Google search engine. For kids who are looking for explicit content, well, that’s another story.

The new SafeSearch default setting will be enabled for everyone, although it can be disabled by anyone who doesn’t have a supervised account (parents, schools and IT administrators at work could “supervise” an account).

(Parents - be sure to “supervise” your kids’ accounts by setting up your Google Family Link parental controls so kids can’t disable this setting! Need help? Take this class: Tech Check for Free Parental Controls. Even iPhone families need a Google Family Link account to manage Google products like the search engine and YouTube.)

When is this change happening?

Good question.

Google is rather vague on the specifics. “In the next few months” we’re supposed to see the change roll out. Considering the National Center for Sexual Exploitation has been requesting this feature since 2013, it’s a long time in coming.