YouTube is testing a new feature that will blur thumbnails of videos that appear in search results that “often include sexual content,” the platform announced in the Community section of the YouTube Help Center. The experimental feature is currently being tested on a small percentage of users, according to Youtube.
With thumbnail blurring, YouTube is expected to be able to provide search results that include videos that technically comply with the Community Guidelines, but protect users from viewing content that may be “sensitive in nature.” YouTube’s announcement does not specify what exactly can cause thumbnails to be blurred, but it does note that “the video title, channel name, and description will remain visible” even if the thumbnail is obscured. Users who have this feature will also be able to turn off thumbnail blurring if they want to.
YouTube offers a limited mode for filtering out adult content, but a more apt comparison for this experimental feature might be the SafeSearch settings in Google Search. SafeSearch allows you to fully filter out “explicit images, text, and links,” show all relevant results, or blur explicit images but skip text and links. Given that YouTube has been the backbone of the Internet for 20 years and is actually replacing television, this feature seems quite logical.
