How to Force Safe Search on Brave Search

Tech Lockdown Team

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Updated January 9, 2025

Brave, the company behind Brave browser, provides their own Search Engine. The Brave Search engine provides a Safe Search feature to filter out explicit search results, like videos, images, and websites. For many of us, we want to protect and lock the Safe Search feature so that it can't be modified. However, making sure that Brave's search results filter can't be turned off can be confusing, especially since the enforcement techniques vary compared to other popular search engines. In this guide, we'll walk you the best safesearch enforcement methods for Brave so that you can ensure that Safe Search isn't accidentally or intentionally turned off.

Due to the privacy features that Brave provides, enforcing Safe Search using typical approaches doesn't work reliably. 

There are two reliable ways that you can enforce Safe Search with Brave:

1. Forcing the use of Brave's dedicated safe search subdomain
2. Configuring the Brave browser policy to protect the Safe Search settings

How to Test if Brave Safe Search is Locked on

Use these techniques to test if Brave Safe Search is enforced properly on computers and smartphones as you're implementing our suggestions.

1) Avoiding DNS Caching issues when testing

When testing, open the browser's incognito/private browsing window (if it is available). This helps you clear the DNS cache so that you can see changes more quickly. You can also restart your browser.

2) Checking if Safe Search is enforced

Unfortunately, the "source of truth" for testing if SafeSearch enforcement is working is to check the search results for your search query after toggling the SafeSearch mode. 

Using DNS-Based SafeSearch Enforcement

For most search engines, a DNS Filtering service that specializes in blocking adult content  can be used to apply a SafeSearch action to the Search Engines category to cause Brave search to use the strict safe search setting. Here are the general steps for configuring this service:

1). Enable SafeSearch

Brave provides search.brave.com to access its online search engine. This domain is classified in the Search Engines DNS category. 

You can apply Safe Search to Brave search as well as other supported search engines.

For example, using the Tech Lockdown  Content Policy , we'll create a new SafeSearch rule and adjust the schedule so that it's always on:

We've selected the Search Engines category in this rule, but you could also specify search.brave.com.

2). Connect devices to the DNS Policy

Next, you can connect your home router or configure specific devices to point to this DNS Content Policy  so that Safe Search is enforced on connected devices.

Tech Lockdown provides two types of ways to connect to DNS filtering:

1. Configuring the DNS settings on the device to point to the filter
2. Using an app, which adds a VPN connection that points to the filter

To ensure that DNS SafeSearch enforcement continues to work, you have to protect that  connection so that it is not intentionally or accidentally bypassed. Tech Lockdown members get access to several powerful bypass prevention tools. For example, our VPN enforcer for iOS .

Enforcing Brave's Safe Search subdomain

Brave provides a dedicated web address that can be used to browse with Safe Search locked-on: safe.search.brave.com .

One way to enforce safe search is to block the normal search.brave.com website, but allow the safe search subdomain. Here are our recommended steps:

1). Setting the Brave browser's address bar to use the SafeSearch domain

In order for this to work properly, you need to adjust your browser to use Brave's Safe Search address before you block the non-safesearch subdomain.

Here are some general steps on how to do this with Brave browser. You can typically do the same thing with other browsers as well (if you use Brave search in a browser like Chrome or Edge).

Name: Brave (SafeSearch)

Shortcut: :brs

URL:

https://safe.search.brave.com/search?q=%s&source=desktop

Now the browser bar should use the safesearch subdomain whenever you type a query.

2). Change your home page or new tab page to the subdomain

If you've set a custom URL for the Home button to go to Brave's search page, you'll also need to change it to point to safe.search.brave.com. Note: this step may not be needed since most people don't set a custom home button URL and just use the page provided by brave.

3). Block the non-safesearch subdomains and whitelist the brave CDNs

Next, you need to restrict access to search.brave.com so that safe.search.brave.com has to be used. It's important to note that you'll need to whitelist Brave's content delivery network domains if you block search.brave.com.

You can use our recommended website blocking techniques to do this, but our recommended approach is to also do this with the Tech Lockdown DNS Content Policy :

Add the following domains to the allow rule:

safe.search.brave.com

Add the following domains to the block rule:

search.brave.com

The end result should look like this in this order:

This will force using the safesearch subdomain that Brave provides and block access to the one where safe search can be customized.

Restricting access to other Search Engines

Now that Safe Search is enforced with Brave, you might want to restrict access to other Search Engines other than Brave search which don't have a Safe Search feature.

Check out our comprehensive SafeSearch guide for more details on how to selectively approve search engines, such as Brave, while restricting access to all others.