How to change Bing Settings to turn off Bing SafeSearch off? Bing is Microsoft’s new search engine, but the strict filters may be blocking valid text content you need to surf. How can you change the Bing safesearch preferences from Strict to Moderate in India and many other countries, or turn on Strict filters in countries where the safe filter is set to moderate.
Edit Bing Settings
To edit the safe search Bing preferences, you need to look at the top right corner and the menu represented by 3 bars.
If you do not see the SafeSearch option in the drop down, then go to Settings>More. Then you will see the safe search options on top of the screen. Choose the Off setting to stop filtering adult content from your Search results.
You will note it is set to Moderate be default it seems, which means it will filter and block adult images and adult videos from your search results, but not adult text results!
Change Bing Safe Search Settings
If you do decide to click ‘Off’ and save, a popup box comes up, requiring age verification.
Click Agree to turn off safe search. But of course by clicking the button you are agreeing you are over 18 years of age. No further verification they will check or ask for.
Historically in early days …
Previously when Bing was launched in 2009, you needed to look at the top right hand corner of the browser – click Extras > Preferences.
If you do not see a safesearch preference option on that page, it means Strict Safe Search is enabled by default in your region. The Strict Filter will remove all explicit text, images, and videos from your search results. Here is what typically will happen when you search for blocked terms
If you check the Google Safe search settings, they are set to Moderate Filtering by default, which means block bad images only. But the Bing settings are set to Strict if the option is not available in your country. So your text results are also filtered.
To change the Bing settings options, you can change the country. Click on the country in the top right corner and select “United States – English”, or you can directly select US as your country. Now you can again go to Extras > Preferences and you will have the moderate safe search option selected by default, which will filter bad images and videos, but not text, from your search results.
On the other hand, if you are in the US or other countries where moderate filters are on, you can go to Extras > Preferences and change your filter to Strict, which will stop all types of offensive content in one go. This is a good idea if children are surfing the web and you do not wish to get surprised by offensive search results slipping through filters. Bing also lets you report websites with adult content, if they are entering your search results with the strict filter on.
Why Different Regional Safe Filters?
Microsoft has updated their blog on the safe search issues and informs that the filters are on by default and if you need to turn it off, you need to confirm you are over 18 years.
Update: Microsoft advises you can add adlt=strict to the end of a query and no matter what the settings are for that session, it will return results as if safe search was set to strict.
Related – Learn how to change Google safe search settings