Safe Search Enforcement
Configure the strictest safe search settings for users when they access various search
engines.
| Where Can I Use This? | What Do I Need? |
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Notes:Legacy URL filtering licenses are discontinued, but
active legacy licenses are still supported. Prisma Access licenses include Advanced URL Filtering capabilities. Transparent SafeSearch requires a Prisma Access
license running a minimum version of 4.1.
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Many search engines offer a safe search setting that enables
you to filter out adult content from search results. Filter settings
typically include Moderate, Strict,
and Off. You can use the moderate setting
to filter out only adult images and videos or the strict setting,
which additionally filters out explicit text. Educational institutions,
workplaces, children, and adults all benefit from this safe search
functionality. However, allowing users in your network to configure
the safe search settings does not always provide the protection
you need.
To protect your network from adult-oriented content, you can
enforce the strictest safe search setting for all end users regardless
of their current individual settings. The strictest safe search
setting provides the safest browsing experience. First, select the Safe
Search Enforcement option in a URL Filtering profile.
Then, apply the profile to any Security policy rules that allow
traffic from clients in the trust zone to the internet.
Neither search engine providers nor Palo Alto Networks can guarantee complete filtering accuracy.
Search engines classify websites as safe or unsafe. As a result, a website
classified as safe may contain explicit content. Palo Alto Networks enforces
filtering based only on the filtering mechanisms of the search engine.
The firewall can enforce the following options when users search with Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, or
YouTube and haven't set the safe search setting for these engines to the strictest
level:
Block Search Results When Strict
Safe Search Is Off (
Default)—The firewall prevents end users
from seeing search results until they set their safe search setting to the
strictest available option. In this scenario, the browser displays the
URL filtering safe search block
page. This response page lets end users know why their search results
were blocked and includes a link to the search settings of the search engine
used for the search.
Palo Alto Networks no longer can detect whether Google SafeSearch is enabled due to changes in
the Google safe search implementation. As a result, the block method does
not work for Google searches. Instead, you can configure Google SafeSearch
using the methods described in
Safe Search Settings for Search Providers.
Force Strict Safe Search (
Supported
for Yahoo and Bing search engines only)—The firewall automatically and
transparently enforces the strictest safe search settings. Specifically, the
firewall redirects search queries to URLs that return strictly filtered search
results and changes the safe search preference for the search engine used. To
enable this functionality, replace the URL filtering safe search block page text
with the text specified in the procedure. The replacement text includes
JavaScript code that rewrites search query URLs with the strict safe search
parameter for the search engine used for the search.
The browser does not display the URL filtering
safe search block page when you use this method.
Transparent SafeSearch (
Prisma Access Deployments Only)—In cases where traffic cannot be
decrypted (for example, at a store that provides guest internet access) and you
want to prevent users with unmanaged devices, including display devices, from
searching for restricted, inappropriate, or offensive material, you can use
transparent SafeSearch in Prisma Access, which resolves mobile users' search
engine queries to the engine's SafeSearch portal by performing an FQDN-to-IP
mapping.
Get started with safe search enforcement by reviewing the safe search settings of each supported
search engine. Then, decide which enforcement method is best for your context.
