Even though the Edge browser includes a setting that allows users to disable Safe Search, for some users Safe Search refuses to be disabled due to a glitch, child account type or browser setting. Here’s the error message that most affected users see after being unable to disable SafeSearch: “We’ve set SafeSearch to strict because your browser communicated your preference for a safe web browsing experience”
Some users have been reaching us with questions after being unable to disable Safe Search for Microsoft Edge and/or Internet Explorer. Whenever this issue occurs, the user is unable to disable Safe for multiple search engines including Bing, Google or Yahoo. The restriction also applies to Youtube and a few other content websites. As per most user reports, this particular issue is either caused by an internal Edge bug or by the fact that the current account is enabled as a child account with limited privileges. If you’re currently struggling to turn off Safe Search for Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer, this article will give you some basic troubleshooting guides. Please follow the methods below in order until you stumble upon a fix that resolves the Safe Search won’t rurn off issue.
Method 1: Turning Safe Search Off from inside the Search Engine’s Settings
Before we dig into other troubleshooting guides, let’s see if you’re trying to turn off Bing’s SafeSearch setting from the right menu. Since disabling or enabling SafeSearch is no longer done through your browser settings, you’ll need to navigate to the home page of your search engine. Please follow the guide specific to your preferred search engine to turn Safe Search Off. Here’s a quick guide on turning Bing SafeSearch on or off for the Bing search engine: Here’s a quick guide on how to disable Safe Search for Google search engine:
Method 2: Apply all pending Windows updates
If the first method wasn’t effective, let’s eliminate the possibility of an internal bug. The inability to turn off Safe search is a known Windows 10 bug that Microsoft has already addressed with a couple of hotfixes. If you’re unable to turn Safe Search off due to Windows 10 glitch, applying all the pending Windows updates will automatically resolve the issue. Here’s a quick guide on applying all the pending Windows updates:
Method 3: Disabling Safe Search via the InPrivate mode
Some users have managed to disable Safe Search by using the InPrivate mode. In the instance that the Safe Search setting is locked to Strict or Moderate, you can try to modify the setting from an InPrivate mode in the Edge browser. Here’s a quick guide on disabling Safe Search from an InPrivate window of Microsoft Edge: If disabling Safe Search from an InPrivate window wasn’t effective, move down to the final method.
Method 4: Creating a new Windows user account
Some users have finally managed to resolve the issue and disable Safe Search after creating a new Windows user account. As it turns out, Windows 10 is capable of overriding the Safe Search settings of your search engines if the active account is enabled as a child of another one. In this case, the solution would be to create a new user account and grant it administrative privileges. Here’s a quick guide on how to do this:
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