How to Filter NSFW content on Reddit
If you set up a porn blocking system on your devices, you might run into an issue where certain websites aren't classified as “Adult Content”, so they aren't automatically blocked. In such cases, you have to decide if you want to block “gray-area” websites that might also host unwanted content.
Reddit is a useful website for many people. However, it also can open up a major issue in your porn blocking system since certain sections of reddit contain Adult Content (NSFW subreddits). In such cases, you might have used our blocking system to make it really difficult to compulsively access websites categorized as Adult Content.
With Reddit unblocked, however, now you can access content that is counter-productive to your mission of a porn-free life.
In many cases, people decide to completely block reddit. However, there are useful subsections of reddit that have nothing to do with explicit content. For example, the pornfree and nofap subreddits are particularly useful if you are looking for support on your journey to live a clean life. Furthermore, the finance subreddit has helped numerous people with financial advice.
It's commonly suggested to edit your reddit user profile settings to block NSFW content. Because this method is so easily circumvented, we suggest alternative approaches.
If you find that Reddit is useful to you and you don't necessarily want to block the entire website, this guide will show you how to use it safely.
Use the Old Reddit Domain
Reddit does have a simplified mode that is much easier to block images on. You can view it by visiting the domain old.reddit.com . It should look something like this:
You might find that a lot of the advice further along in this guide is easier to follow using this version of the webpage instead.
If you'd prefer to use only the older view of the Reddit website while allowing the older version only, you can block the regular reddit.com domain and allow the old.reddit.com subdomain only. That will prevent you from opening the normal version of the Reddit website.
This can be done most effectively with a Content Policy .
Here's what the allow rule should look like:
Here's what the block rule should look like:
The order you place rules matters in your Content Policy. Place the allow rule for old.reddit.com above the rule for reddit.com:
Lastly, follow this up with a block rule for Reddit Images using a rule preset:
Your content policy should look like this when you're done:
Block All Images on Reddit on a PC or Mac
If you examine the source code of Reddit, you'll notice that images use a different address than reddit.com. Reddit uses a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to host their images. This means that you can block those CDN's, which will allow you to access reddit without images, GIFs, or videos.
Go to a subreddit with images. Right click an image and open it in a new tab.
Copy the domain of the image (preview.redd.it in this case)
Click into one of the posts
Copy the domain for that image as well. Reddit uses one CDN for images on the feed (list) view and a different CDN for the images loaded when you click into a post
Block images using the preferred method in your blocking system . Just so I can demonstrate this, I'll just use the hosts file blocking technique to block the two CDN's from reddit. However, you might want to use a DNS filter to block the CDN's on all of your devices.
Open reddit in a new private browser window and navigate to the subreddit to make sure images are blocked.
Block All Images on Reddit on all devices
If you want to block images on all devices, you should add a block rule to your Content Policy .
One way you can do this is by adding the preview.redd.it domain to your Block List.
But we also have a dedicated rule preset that blocks Reddit domains without any additional setup.
This will allow you to block Reddit images/videos on any device connected to your home network or any device that uses the Tech Lockdown filter application.
Block NSFW Content on Reddit Using Config Files
Config Files can be used to directly control features on Mac computers, especially if you use Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers. This can be used to directly block images on Reddit without needing to block domains.
This approach only works on Mac computers and requires you to create your own Config Files that block images on a specific domain. This can be done by adding reddit.com using an
Apple Config Generator
, such as the one included with a Tech Lockdown membership.
Once the resulting Config File is generated, you can install it on your Mac and restart your web browser.
You can combine this technique with manually-blocked domain names for a multi-layered approach on your Mac.
Additionally, you could combine this with URL blocking to block access to specific subreddits that could host NSFW or adult content.
Blacklist specific NSFW URLs
This approach involves using a URL filter to block pages within a website. You'll need to configure an application that specifically supports URL blocking or filtering.
There are numerous applications that can do this on smartphones and computers. You cannot filter URLs with a DNS Filter - DNSFiltering services can only block entire hostnames/domains (reddit.com) - they can't block parts of a website (reddit.com/r/somebadsubreddit).
Ideally you should designate a device that you use reddit on and then block reddit on your other devices.
On the device you use reddit, follow these steps to block NSFW urls:
- Designate a device that you'll use reddit on (ideally a laptop or desktop computer)
- On your other devices, block reddit using our recommended approaches in the techlockdown guide . In summary, you could use a DNS Filtering service that allows blocking customization. Alternatively, you can use a blocking application on your specific device to block reddit.
- On your designated Reddit-browsing device, download a blocking application that supports URL filtering/blocking.
- Copy the list of NSFW subreddits from this reddit post
- Add these URLs to your blocking application
Whitelist safe URLs and blacklist everything else
The most comprehensive approach is to use a URL filter that supports regular expressions. Then, you block everything on reddit by default, but enable access to specific sections that you use regularly.
For example, using a blocking application like Cold Turkey, create a new block.
- Add reddit.com to the list of blocked websites
- Under website exceptions, add a safe URL like “reddit.com/r/nofap” and add a star to the end of it to unblock all subsections within /r/nofap.
Now you'll only be able to access /r/nofap and any comments or threads within that subreddit.
Refine this process with your Reddit profile (if that's important to you), so that you can access your notifications and profile information. You'll also want to add all subreddits that you use regularly to the Website Exceptions list (remembering to use a * to unlock child pages within the subreddit).
Final Thoughts
In some cases you might find that Reddit has no use to you at all. You might use our suggested techniques to filter out NSFW content, but you find that you use reddit as a form of unhealthy escapism and to procrastinate on the important things in your life. It's counter-productive to use websites like Reddit that provide endless content. The algorithms that drive these endless-content websites keep you hooked by hijacking the reward-center of your brain. This often results in countless wasted hours with little to no value provided. In such a case, it's better to completely block Reddit using a DNS Filter like the one we provide.