How to Block Porn in Chrome and Other Browsers

Tech Lockdown Team

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Updated December 12, 2024

If you want to block porn in chrome and other web browsers, I recommend a multi-layered approach. When it comes to blocking adult content, it's important to have methods for preventing easy bypass.

If you are self-managing, you want to handle moments of weakness where you are motivated to disable your blocking setup to access content that you know is ultimately harmful to you. If you are helping another person, you want to have some assurance that you have provided them the right tools for success.

My approach to blocking focuses on two areas:

1. Set up multiple layers of effective blocking
2. Prevent easy bypassing of blocking and filtering

Blocking and Bypass Prevention Outside of the Browser

Although this guide will mostly focus on what you can do in the browser to block and prevent bypass of blocking techniques, you should combine these browser techniques with blocking techniques on your computer for the ultimate blocking and bypass prevention setup.

Here is what you can do outside of the browser and I recommend combining multiple techniques:

1. Hosts file: free blocking technique using a file on your computer. You can block websites and even enforce safesearch. 
2. DNS Filtering: an advanced blocking method that works across all browsers. You can even set up a DNS Filter on your home internet connection to block content on your WiFi .
3. Blocking Applications: software you install on your computer for content blocking and bypass prevention.

Learn more about how to block porn on computers  over at our free guide. 

Enable SafeSearch

SafeSearch is a search engine feature that provides filtered search results. It's improved over the years, so turning on SafeSearch is a critical part of any blocking setup.

The top right corner of the Google search results page usually shows the status of SafeSearch

Enable SafeSearch in Google Chrome

Enforce SafeSearch

SafeSearch can easily be toggled off unless you enforce it so that it's locked on.

There are a few ways to lock on SafeSearch and I recommend doing all of them:

1. Use Command Prompt or Terminal to force a browser to use Safe Search when supported by a search engine.
2. Use the Hosts file on your computer to block search engines that don't support Safe Search. Additionally, the Hosts file let's you force supported search engines to use Safe Search.
3. Use a DNS Filter to both enforce Safe Search and block unsupported search engines. Additionally, DNS Filtering let's you block content that might not get filtered out from safe search results, like security threats.

Our guide dedicated to enforcing Safe Search goes into much more detail about each of these options, so I'd recommend reading the article to get a better idea of how to do this on different types of devices.

Edit Lookup

Enforce SafeSearch

Force usage of the SafeSearch mode on Google, Bing, and other search engines.

Learn More

Browser Plugins

In order to block content in a web browser, you will primarily leverage a browser plugin to get the job done.

Content Blocking Plugins

Content blocking plugins provide unique capabilities that you will not get from the hosts file or from DNS Filtering services. Similar to the hosts file, this blocking method will also work even while using a VPN or Proxy.

Block Websites containing words

When you load a website, you'll notice that your browser's address bar has a website URL like www.youtube.com.

You can use a browser extension to block website URLs that contain keywords that you specify.

Block Searches on any Website

You can block searches containing specific keywords on Google, Youtube, or most other search portal websites.

For example, when you search for"fruit" on most websites, the URL will usually have a part like this:

?query=fruit

?q=fruit

Youtube search for "fruit"

Google Search for "fruit"

To block searches on Google and Youtube containing the word "fruit," you can use a browser plugin with a blocking rule like this:

Take the guesswork out of setting up the perfect blocking system. Become a Tech Lockdown member  to get access to step-by-step premium blocking guides and expert support.

Block Google Images

When you search on Google images, the URL changes to something like this: https://www.google.com/search?q=apples....&tbm=isch. 

If you want to block Google image search entirely, you can use a blocking plugin to create a block like this to target image search specifically:

*google.com/search*tbm=isch*

Block Based on Window Titles

When you visit a page in your browser, you'll see the title in the tab.

You can configure content-blocking browser plugins on platforms like Windows to block any website that uses a specific title or contains specific words. 

Element Hider Extensions

One type of extension that is actually pretty useful involves an element hider extension.

You can use this kind of extension to block sections of a website that you use frequently.

For example, Twitch.tv is a website used for watching video game streams. However, you can access non-video game content on the website. You will often see non-video game related channels suggested in the sidebar.

As a result, it can be useful to use this extension to hide recommended channels on Twitch. You can apply this concept to other similar websites.

Note: I block images on Twitch, which is why the images don't load in this example.

How to hide parts of a page:

News Feed Hider

Social media websites can become a problem for people who struggle with quitting porn. Social media news feeds often show content that can trigger a similar dopamine hit to viewing adult content . This can lead to the person seeking out more dopamine.

As a result, if you don't want to completely block social media websites, it can be helpful to hide endless content news feeds.

I download News Feed Eradicator on my computer's web browser, which replaces social media feeds with an inspirational quote. It works on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Reddit, and even LinkedIn.

Enforce Browser Plugins

A weakness with using browser plugins to block content is that browser plugins can easily be uninstalled or disabled. In order to prevent this, you can manage a browser.

There are two ways that you can manage your browser: either enable policies using the Registry (or Plist files if you're a Mac user) or enable managed mode on your device.

For most computers, it's usually much easier to enforce policies as opposed to managing your entire device. Enforcing browser plugins is a very complicated process that we can't get into here, but we have an entire guide dedicated to explaining how to enforce browser extensions .

Block Browser Plugins

It is also possible to block browser plugins. If you'd like to block specific browser extensions instead of just enforcing specific ones, check out our guide about how to block browser extensions .

Hide the Browser Plugins Store

Additionally, if you would like to avoid the ability to install new extensions altogether, hiding the extensions store completely is one of the best ways to go.

Disable Private Browsing

Browsers have privacy features that are not ideal if your priority is blocking and bypass prevention.

Disabling private browsing can add more transparency to web browsing, which can be a deterrent for looking at harmful content since the user can't hide their browsing activity. 

In addition, disabling private browsing can make DNS Filtering and other blocking techniques more effective because you won't have to worry about browser privacy features conflicting with content filtering.

Learn more about how to disable browser privacy features that conflict with blocking and bypass prevention over at our free guide.