How to Block NSFW on Reddit (and What the Toggle Will Not Do)

You opened Reddit for a thread about fixing a bike.

Four swipes later the feed handed you something else, and now you are trying to block NSFW on Reddit before tonight.

Reddit does have a switch for this. It works, and it takes about ten seconds to turn back on.

Turn off "Show mature (18+) content" in your Reddit preferences in a browser, and choose off rather than blur.

That is a preference on your account, not a lock. If you need it to hold, the block has to sit at a layer you do not control.

Turn the toggle off first

On the desktop site, open your avatar menu, go to Settings, then the Preferences tab, and turn off Show mature (18+) content.¹

In the Android app, tap your avatar, open Settings, and under View options turn off Show mature content (I'm over 18).²

On iPhone and iPad the setting is not in the app at all.

Apple's rules keep it out, so Reddit sends you to the desktop site. Sign in at reddit.com in a browser and change it in your preferences there.¹

Do it once and it follows your account into the app.

Choose off, not blur

Alongside the main switch, Reddit offers Blur mature (18+) images and media.¹

Blur keeps the content in your feed and covers it with a reveal button. That is a speed bump for someone browsing at work.

It is the wrong setting for someone trying to stop, because tapping to reveal is the whole behaviour you are removing.

What the toggle does not do

With mature content off, NSFW communities and posts stop appearing in your feed, in search and in recommendations.

It is still a preference attached to one account. A second account does not inherit it. A logged-out browser does not either.

And nothing sits between you and turning it back on. No passcode, no delay, no one notified.

If you are in the UK, Reddit already decided

Since 25 July 2025, UK accounts have to verify their age before Reddit will show mature content, using an Apple account or Reddit's partner Persona with a selfie or an ID.³

An unverified UK account is treated as ineligible for that content, and the option to include it in search is simply gone.³

If that is you, the toggle question is already answered. Skip to the layer below.

Reddit is not one address

This is where domain blocks quietly fail.

The feed lives on reddit.com, and old.reddit.com is a separate hostname serving the same account. Images and video come from redd.it subdomains: i.redd.it, v.redd.it and the preview hosts.

A lot of Reddit's adult video does not sit on Reddit at all. It sits on RedGIFs, the adult host spun out of Gfycat after Gfycat banned adult uploads in 2020.

So a block that names only reddit.com can leave the media reachable, and one that names only a media host leaves the feed. Name all of them or expect a gap.

Set it up in this order

1. Turn mature content off in a browser, not the app. The browser has the setting on every platform.
2. Choose off, never blur. Blur ships with a reveal button.
3. Sign out of the second account you forgot about. The preference is per account.
4. Turn on SafeSearch. Otherwise search results route you straight back into subreddits.
5. Decide whether you need Reddit at all. If not, block it at the network with its media hosts named.
6. Test it logged out, in the app and in a browser. One term you already know is enough.

Short version: Reddit hides adult communities when you turn off "Show mature (18+) content" in your preferences, and for iPhone users that switch lives on the desktop site.

Blur is not the same as off. And because it is a preference rather than a lock, surviving a bad night takes a device or network layer underneath.

My bias, stated plainly: I built X Reset, so I am the wrong person to ask whether a preference is enough.

It blocks porn at the DNS level, off the device, and charges an amount you set yourself if you relapse (DNS is the layer that turns a web address into a server, underneath the browser and the apps).

That is the part a toggle cannot do.

If a preference has held for you so far, keep it and save the money.

Common questions

One switch, then a layer you do not hold

Turn the toggle off tonight. It takes a minute and it removes the surprise thumbnail, which was the immediate problem.

Then be honest about the second question: if you would flip it back at midnight, the switch was never the thing holding the line.

For the layer underneath, cross-layer coverage covers how the pieces fit, and the wider NSFW guide handles sensitive media in messages and other feeds.