Everything You Need To Know About Google Safe Search

With the Internet age that we live in, information is just a few taps away. While the Internet can be a source of rich information for your children, it can also be a dark void of information that is unsafe for their young, impressionable minds. As a digital parent, you are the guardian on their online search behavior to ensure that they are safe and sound online. This behemoth of a task can be undertaken by a simple, effective tool by Google - SafeSearch.

With Google being the leading search engine on the Internet, unrestricted access to inappropriate sites can be controlled by you with a tap of a button.

But first, what is it?

Google is the preferred search engine on most of our devices and although parents have control over search results, certain search queries can bring up inappropriate content. SafeSearch helps prevent this by filtering such kind of content, (including images and videos) out of search results, and is one of the main ways Google helps parents set parental controls that actually work.

How to set up Google SafeSearch?

• To activate SafeSearch on your web browsers, visit the Google search settings page: https://www.google.com/preferences
  
  
• Check the “Turn on SafeSearch” box.
  
  
• Click the blue words next to it - “Lock SafeSearch.”
  
  
• If you are not already logged in to your Gmail account, you will need to log in before you can lock the SafeSearch setting (preventing someone from simply turning off SafeSearch before browsing).
  
  
• You also need to change your browser settings to “always accept cookies.” (Google gives a link if you’re unsure of how to do this.)
  
  
• Once this is done, click the “Lock SafeSearch” button.
  
  

Now that you know how to activate SafeSearch, you can sit back and ensure that your children have a positive digital footprint.