YouTube is testing a new feature that will blur the thumbnails of videos that appear in search results, which often include sexual themes. YouTube said it is currently testing experimental features on a small number of users.
Hopefully, with blurry thumbnails, YouTube can provide search results that include videos that technically adhere to its community guidelines, but can protect users from seeing content that may be “sensitive in nature.” YouTube’s post won’t involve any details that trigger the blurred thumbnail, but does point out that even if the thumbnail is thumbnailed, “the video title, channel name, and description will remain visible.” Users with this feature can also disable thumbnails if needed.
YouTube provides a restriction mode to filter mature content, but a more appropriate comparison of this experimental feature, probably the Safesearch setting in Google Search. SafeSearch allows you to completely filter “definite images, text and links”, displaying all relevant results or blurred explicit images while allowing explicit text and links. Given that YouTube is in the backbone of the internet and a de facto TV alternative, YouTube is in 20 years, it seems like a common sense feature.
