Safe Search Filter

The Mippin Team monitors the feedback you give on the service and also the search terms that are entered. We do this so we can respond to your interests and requests. (You can see a hilarious example of search in our archive under the title "The best search term ever").

We receive a steady stream of requests for the Safe Search Filter to be disabled with many commenting that they are old enough to decide for themselves or that we are not being open by not allowing people to view exactly what they would like to and that this approach is different from that taken by leaders like Google in the web space.

This feedback is entirely correct and we agree.

But, there are some constraints in the mobile world which we are wary of contravening which are worth pointing out.

It is entirely within the power of the ISPs in the mobile world - the operators/carriers - to deny access to a site if it contravenes industry standards. One of these standards is that if a site contains 18+ content a user must be authenticated as being 18+. This can be a laborious process (even if you are 18+) and kills take-up of fledgling services.

We take the most detailed content guidelines for each market and apply them. In the UK for example this comes from H3G who give very good commentary on what is 15+ (you will see in Mippin) and what is beyond that threshold. In the US, this threshold is much stricter and what is 15+ in the UK is still 18+ in the US.

We appreciate that there is a demand for 18+ content and our ambition to allow you to read , discover and share whatever you'd like, whereever you are remains true. But we do not want the service to be defined by this content and we do not want to make it available if it means that the majority of users lose their easy access.

In time we'll solve the issue and find the right balance - in the meantime we hope that you overcome the frustration and enjoy, nonetheless, the full selection of what is available through the 12,500 sites which are there across a spectrum of topics and interests.