Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could simply block any words we consider unsafe, even before our kids finish typing them into the browser? While we work at making this an option in the future, there is a great feature that can help you now called Safe Search.
What is Safe Search?
When you enable Safe Search, Qustodio forces Google, Bing and YouTube to filter out all the content they have flagged as inappropriate. This means that even if your child types in any words you don’t like or tries to make potentially harmful searches, any dangerous or worrying results will be filtered out. Not only that, Qustodio will continue to prevent access to any web pages you have chosen to block in the web browsing rules section of your Qustodio account.
Safe Search filtering results are defined by the search site, not Qustodio. This means that Google, Bing and YouTube decide which content should be shown or not; Qustodio only enforces restricted mode. Apart from promoting safer searches on these sites, this feature offers many more advantages:
Block the Google app
When the Safe Search feature is enabled, Qustodio will close the Google app and instead open an internet browser every time your child tries to open the Google app. This way your child will perform all of their searches on google.com, which is monitored and protected by Qustodio.
If you want to use the Google app instead of the browser, you can disable this feature knowing that although the results won’t be filtered, blocking and reporting will keep working as expected.
YouTube comments will be blocked
As YouTube does not monitor comments on the video service, your child will not be able to read any comments posted. A message will appear indicating that “Comments for this video have been hidden by Restricted Mode”.
Embedded videos will not be available
YouTube needs to verify the settings and categorization of videos to make sure they’re safe when Restricted Mode is enabled. Because of this, your child will not be able to watch embedded YouTube videos on websites, presentations or similar, whenever “Enforce Safe Search” is ON. They may also see a message that says “Video not available when restricted mode is activated”. If you need to temporarily disable this function, simply visit the Family Portal.
Live streaming will not be accessible
As YouTube can’t live monitor the content of live events, these kinds of videos won’t be accessible while Safe Search is enabled. You can simply turn the feature off if you need to watch a video. Remember to enable it again afterwards to keep online activity safe.
