How to block NSFW on X (Twitter)

To block NSFW on X, make sure Display media that may contain sensitive content is unticked in Settings and privacy → Privacy and safety, and keep Hide sensitive content ticked in your search settings. On Android both are in the app. On iPhone, X’s help sends you to x.com in a browser to change them.

X allows adult content as long as it carries a warning, so these settings matter more here than on most apps. They also have real gaps. Here are the steps, what each one misses, and what to add.

Quick answer: Untick Display media that may contain sensitive content in Settings and privacy → Privacy and safety, tick Hide sensitive content in search settings, then mute the words and accounts that pull you in. On iPhone, make the first two changes at x.com.

1. Hide sensitive media in posts

On Android

1. Tap the menu icon or your profile icon at the top, then Settings and privacy.
2. Tap Privacy and safety.
3. Under Safety, make sure Display media that may contain sensitive content is unticked.

On a computer, or for iPhone (x.com)

X’s help says iPhone users adjust this setting by logging in at x.com, so use these steps in Safari or on a computer.

1. Log in at x.com and open Settings and privacy (on a computer it’s under More in the side menu).
2. Open Privacy and safety, then Content you see.
3. Make sure Display media that may contain sensitive content is unticked. X saves the change automatically.

What it catches: images and videos that the poster or X has marked as sensitive. They show behind a warning instead of in full.
What it misses: anything that isn’t marked. X’s help says that if media has no warning, it may not meet X’s threshold for one. Text posts, links to other sites, profiles and messages aren’t covered. And for adults the warning is a screen you can tap through, not a block.
How easy to undo: one checkbox.

Steps from X Help Center: How to control whether you see sensitive media in posts (Android and desktop tabs; the iOS tab points to x.com), checked 14 October 2026.

2. Keep sensitive content out of search

X search has its own safe search settings, separate from the one above.

On Android

1. Tap the Explore tab and search for anything.
2. On the results page, tap the overflow icon (⋮), then Search settings.
3. Make sure Hide sensitive content and Remove blocked and muted accounts are both ticked.

On a computer, or for iPhone (x.com)

1. Search for anything at x.com.
2. Click the more icon (⋯) on the right of the results page, then Search settings.
3. Make sure both boxes are ticked. X says the change can take several minutes, and that it applies to search on the web, in the iPhone app and on Android.

What it catches: potentially sensitive posts, plus accounts you’ve muted or blocked, in search results.
What it misses: your timeline, replies and messages. It only covers search.
How easy to undo: one checkbox.

Steps from X Help Center: How to use X search, checked 14 October 2026.

3. Mute words and accounts

Muting a word, phrase, hashtag or emoji removes posts that contain it from your Home timeline, notifications and replies. Choose the words you know lead you somewhere you don’t want to go. Set each one to Forever.

On iPhone

1. Go to the Notifications tab and tap the gear icon.
2. Tap Muted, then Muted words, then Add.
3. Type one word or hashtag, choose Home timeline and Notifications, set For how long? to Forever and tap Save.

On Android

1. Go to the Notifications tab and tap the gear icon.
2. Tap Muted words, then the plus icon.
3. Type one word or hashtag, choose Home timeline and Notifications, set it to Forever and tap Save.

On a computer

1. Open More → Settings and privacy → Privacy and safety → Mute and block → Muted words.
2. Click the plus icon, enter one word or hashtag, tick Home timeline and Notifications, choose Forever and click Save.

To mute an account, open the ⋯ menu on one of its posts or on its profile and choose Mute. X says muting doesn’t stop an account from messaging you. Block goes further: you can’t be in a one-on-one conversation with an account you’ve blocked.

What it catches: posts with the words you chose, in your timeline and notifications, and posts from accounts you muted.
What it misses: X says you’ll still see posts with muted words in search, and it can’t know the words you didn’t add.
How easy to undo: easy, from the same list.

Steps from X Help Center: How to use advanced muting options and How to mute accounts on X, checked 14 October 2026.

4. Limit who can message you

Messages from strangers are a common way explicit images reach people who never went looking. X’s help says people you don’t follow can message you only if you’ve allowed message requests from everyone (or from verified accounts), or you messaged them first.

1. Open Settings and privacy → Privacy and safety → Direct Messages.
2. Make sure Allow message requests from everyone is off.

X also says a filter for graphic media in messages is on by default. It puts a warning over graphic media and moves graphic requests from people you don’t follow to the bottom of your requests.

From X Help Center: About Direct Messages, checked 14 October 2026. X has been reworking messages, so this menu may look different in your app.

What’s on by default?

• The media and search settings: X’s help pages don’t say what the defaults are for adult accounts, so check both rather than assume.
• Under 18, or no birth date: X’s adult content policy says users under 18, or who haven’t added a birth date to their profile, can’t click through to marked content.
• UK, EU, Ireland and Australia: X says the law there requires it to estimate or verify age, and until it knows you’re 18 or over, you may not be able to see sensitive media.
• Messages: the graphic media filter is on by default.

From X Help Center: Adult Content Policy and Age Assurance on X, checked 14 October 2026.

What X’s settings can’t do

X’s policy allows consensual adult content as long as it’s labelled. So it’s always on the platform, and these settings decide only whether you meet it behind a warning. They depend on labels that posters add or X applies after reports. None of them has a PIN or a waiting period, and they’re all inside the app you’re trying to use less.

If X is where most slips start, distance does more than any setting: delete the app for 30 days, or keep it off your phone and check X on a computer at set times.

Where a phone-wide blocker helps, and where it doesn’t

We make QUIT, so take this section with that in mind. QUIT doesn’t filter posts on X and doesn’t block X; your timeline is up to the settings above. What QUIT adds is what those settings can’t:

• The rest of the phone. On Android, QUIT blocks known adult sites in every browser and app, including links you tap inside X, and locks SafeSearch on Google, Bing and YouTube. On iPhone, it turns on Apple’s own adult-website filter.
• Something slower than a checkbox. On Android, Strict Mode makes switching protection off a request that unlocks after 24 hours, or sooner if a partner you trust approves. On iPhone, a delete lock stops QUIT being removed on impulse.
• Help in the moment. When a post sets off an urge, the Panic Button walks you through a few minutes of slow breathing with your companion, and an AI coach is there to talk to at 1am.

See every option, free and paid, in how to block porn on any device, and read how to ride out an urge for the moments no filter reaches.