How to Find Porn on Flickr

When it comes to finding photos online, Flickr is THE source to go to. With over 2.5 billion pictures hosted*, there's something there for everyone (that includes porn!). There's only one thing standing in between you and all the pictures of naked people you could want. That, my friends, is Flickr's safety filter.

For those not in the know, Flickr has three "safety levels" that it uses to filter content. The following definitions are taken directly from Flickr:

* Safe - Content suitable for a global, public audience
* Moderate - If you're not sure whether your content is suitable for a global, public audience but you think that it doesn't need to be restricted per se, this category is for you
* Restricted - This is content you probably wouldn't show to your mum, and definitely shouldn't be seen by kids

Now that we know how Flickr categorizes content, we can move on to the task of getting to those beautiful restricted photos. In order to do that we have to ask answer the following question: "What is SafeSearch?"

Simply put, SafeSearch is Flickr's way of trying to keep the internet's horniness level in check. It's the safety filter I was talking about that lets only content tagged as "safe" appear in searches. What you might not know is that it is ON for everyone by DEFAULT. Hey, at least we can turn it off; if you live in Singapore, Hong Kong, or Korea, you can't.

Because there's no mention of SafeSearch on the main page when searching images, it's easy to overlook. Once you know that SafeSearch exists, the hard part's over. To turn it off, just hit "advanced search" next to the search box and scroll down until you see this:

The first time you deactivate SafeSearch, the following will appear at the top of your search results. It cracked me up when I saw it. And yes, if you click on it, you really will see pictures of kittens. Note: I had to crop out the words "If you've changed your mind about wanting..." to make the image fit.



Alternatively, if you have an account with Flickr, you can turn off SafeSearch permanently in your settings (Otherwise you need to do it every time you search). Hopefully these instructions were straight forward enough to get you on your way to finding those pictures of scantily clad women (or men) that Flickr's hidden away for only the most determined to see.

Happy hunting and don't forget to share particularly good Flickr groups or users in the comments section!


*I used the nifty code provided by TechCrunch in this article to come up with that figure. If you're patient enough to figure out the exact number of photos Flickr has on site (at the moment in time that you're checking, of course), drop me a line and I'll post it up here!