App & Website Filtering
How to Force Google Safe Search
Learn how to Force Google Safe Search on your network and devices.
One of the most important features for browsing the internet is SafeSearch. For many of us, we want to filter out search results in a browser. However, especially if the reason for safe search is self-control, making sure that is very difficult (or outright impossible) for this filter to be turned off can become a different kind of headache. This is why we might want to force Google SafeSearch.
This guide will provide you with these techniques to help you enforce SafeSearch on many different devices. These techniques will also make it more difficult for you to turn off SafeSearch on those devices.
Turning on Google Safe Search
Each platform and device type has their own menu navigation for turning on Safe Search. On most devices, the steps for turning on SafeSearch goes like this:
www.google.com/safesearch
This is because there are other ways to enforce SafeSearch.
Using a DNS Filtering Service to Enforce SafeSearch on a Home Network or Router
You can configure a DNS Filtering service on your home internet connection to enforce SafeSearch on your entire Wi-Fi. This technique will force any device that is using your home internet to use Google SafeSearch.
This is one of the best ways to force SafeSearch because you don’t have to configure each device, SafeSearch is enforced simply by browsing on the internet connection that is using the DNS Filtering service.
However, we highly recommend combining this approach with some of our other recommendations in this guide to prevent common bypass techniques.
1) Sign up for a DNS Filtering Service that Supports Enforcing SafeSearch
Sign up to a DNS Filtering Service, such as Tech Lockdown , and choose which categories you want to filter.
In our case, we want to enable the category marked: "Enforce SafeSearch".
In addition to this, we can also enable the "Proxy and Filter Avoidance" category to prevent devices from using a VPN connection on our network that will bypass network protection.
Once you have the proper categories enabled, you can then connect your Router to the service.
2) Configure router to point to the Filtering Service
Most DNS Filtering services require you to change your Router's DNS settings, so that it points to their servers. In addition to setting up your Router, you will also need to point the filter to your Router. Check out our guide on how to configure a router to point to a content filter to learn more about how to do this.
Forcing Google SafeSearch on Windows
On Windows, there are many different ways to enforce SafeSearch. Whether its through the Hosts file, or by enforcing the SafeSearch policies using the Windows registry.
Force Google SafeSearch on Windows by Using a DNS Filtering Application
You can configure the same DNS Filtering service you installed on your router directly on your Windows computer to enforce SafeSearch when away from your home network. Most filtering services have a filtering application that can use your filter settings and enforce them on a device. For Tech Lockdown, here's how you can download the filter application.
Updating the Windows Registry to Enforce Google Chrome SafeSearch Preferences
The Windows Registry is a special set of records on the PC that keeps track of certain settings that different programs use. It stores records, which are called keys, for various types of both software and hardware settings.
Some of the settings we can change for Chrome include forcing SafeSearch. This will make it so all searches made on Chrome will have SafeSearch on, even if the user decides to change their SafeSearch settings.
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome" /v ForceGoogleSafeSearch /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Note
Another setting to look into is preventing incognito mode on the Chrome browser , which will prevent a user from hiding their online activity.
Force SafeSearch on Google on Windows using the Hosts File
The Hosts file is a special file on your computer that allows you to change certain network settings. You can use it to force Google SafeSearch at the most fundamental level on your system. As a bonus, this is the method Google themselves recommend .
Check our guide about how to edit the Hosts file on Windows .
On your Hosts file, add the following entries:
## Google Safe Search ## 216.239.38.120 google.com 216.239.38.120 www.google.com
Now, when you search for anything on that device using Chrome, you will get filtered results. Your https://www.google.com/safesearch page will also look like this:
The drawback of this approach is that maintaining the hosts file is a manual process and can be a bit technical sometimes. However, this is a great enforcement layer to use.
Better Blocking for Mac & PC
Elevate your content blocking and bypass prevention with DNS Filtering and Device Management.
Forcing Google SafeSearch on a Mac
For setting up a Mac, there are different options available to a Mac user that are not natively available on a Windows device, such as device supervision. Device supervision, coupled with other layers of enforcement, are ways to lock down a device entirely, and change certain settings in a way that can only be changed with a device manager.
Enforcing Google Chrome Browser settings with Mobile Device Managment
If you set up a MacOS computer as a managed device, you can configure the Google Chrome browser settings to force the SafeSearch browser setting on. When you manage the Chrome browser, the browser settings cannot be changed on the device itself and the mobile device manager must be used to remotely update these settings.
Using the Hosts file to Enforce SafeSearch in all Browsers
For more information about how to access and modify the hosts file, take a look at our Hosts File guide for Mac .
The Hosts file will allow you to enforce SafeSearch across all Browsers, not just Chrome. Again, this is a better step than just enabling SafeSearch in a single browser, any Google search will now be enforced.
The entries that you can now add to your Hosts File do enforce SafeSearch can be copy/pasted below:
## Google Safe Search ## 216.239.38.120 google.com 216.239.38.120 www.google.com
Make sure to properly save your changes. Your connection will now see SafeSearch enforced like the image below:
The drawback of this approach is that maintaining the hosts file is a manual process and can be a bit technical sometimes. However, this is a great enforcement layer to use.
Using Terminal to Configure Google Chrome to Force SafeSearch
You can change the browser settings on your Mac device to force SafeSearch.
defaults write com.google.Chrome.plist GoogleSafeSearch -int 1
The drawback of this approach is that SafeSearch is only enforced when using the Google Chrome browser, so you should combine this method with another SafeSearch enforcement technique.
Forcing Google SafeSearch on a Mac using a DNS Filtering Application
Like we mentioned earlier, you can use a DNS Filtering service to enforce SafeSearch on many different devices. You can install the DNS Filtering application provided by Tech Lockdown to enforce SafeSearch on your Mac when on the go. DNS Filtering has a big advantage compared to the other enforcement techniques: enforcing SafeSearch with the Tech Lockdown filter will block all search engine that don't offer a SafeSearch option.
Forcing Google SafeSearch on an Android
Forcing SafeSearch on an Android device can be a bit trickier, since many of the settings available on either a Windows or Mac computer are not normally available. However, there are a few things that can be done for an Android.
Forcing Google SafeSearch on an Android using a DNS Filter Application
You can configure the same DNS Filtering service you installed on your router directly on your Windows computer to enforce SafeSearch when away from your home network. The advantage of using a DNS Filter on your Android device is that there is one option that will enforce SafeSearch for all browsers, and block search engines that don't have a SafeSearch feature.
Each service will have different ways for you to install these applications, but for Tech Lockdown , this is how it works:
Enforcing SafeSearch with Mobile Device Management
As a part of configuring or modifying your managed device settings, SafeSearch or a content filter can be enforced on the device.
The managed Android can have the DNS Filtering application forced on the device, and then configure your filter's settings to turn on SafeSearch.
Additionally, if there are other settings you want to enforce on your device (like which networks the device can connect to), those can also be managed by a Mobile Device Manager.
Forcing Google SafeSearch on an iPhone
Forcing SafeSearch on an iPhone is a little tricky, but is still possible.
As with a Mac, the most effective way to enforce content filtering is to make a managed device.
Using Screen Time to Enforce SafeSearch on a Standard iPhone
You can use the screen time content filter that comes preinstalled on iOS to turn on SafeSearch.
The downside of the screen time approach is that it has limited browser compatibility. Furthermore, screen time can be bypassed if you are setting it up for yourself and not for another person.
Using Apple Configurator to Enforce SafeSearch on a Supervised Device
Configuring a supervised device allows you to enforce content filtering settings on an iPhone in a way that is difficult to bypass or disable. This approach is similar to enabling content filtering with screen time, but it's much harder to bypass it if you are setting up the device for yourself.
Similar to screen time, enabling the content filter will automatically activate SafeSearch. However, browser compatibility might be limited.
Enforcing SafeSearch with Mobile Device Management
Managing an iOS device is a more complicated process compared to screen time or device supervision. However, configuring a managed device gives you the most control and bypass prevention available on iOS devices.
For example, you can use a Mobile Device Manager to enforce content filtering settings
You can also configure a DNS Filtering service you installed on your router directly on your iPhone to enforce SafeSearch when away from your home network.
Closing Thoughts
This article has gone over various concepts and techniques you can use to properly enforce SafeSearch on your devices. Hopefully, you've found at least one way which can help you develop healthy online habits.
The most effective way to blocking all content is to use a multilayer protection approach. This means that you have many different layers of protection. Each layer offers a small yet important piece of a full blocking solution.
If you're interested, check out our guide for enforcing SafeSearch on Bing .
If you are interested in learning more about how you can improve your online safety and create a stronger sense of self control, check out our free guides that explain more about how to lockdown you devices. You can also check out our Blog , which provides more information about how to develop self control online.
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