Nowadays, the internet is flooded with content known as NSFW (Not Safe For Work), the type of images, texts, and videos that should not be seen by underage people and should not be shown publicly. It is a huge issue if you want to create a safe environment that everybody should be able to visit without worrying about seeing, reading, or hearing anything unwanted.
For platform hosts, NSFW content can sometimes be tricky to detect, and manually checking everything to see if it is safe for viewers is impossible (in most cases). However, the content must be filtered, and tools are available to make the whole process barely require human attention.
NSFW content detection in texts
NSFW content detection in texts is relatively unproblematic in comparison with images, as there are most often some keywords used that indicate that the text may include unsafe elements. Certain words or whole phrases can be filtered, and if they are present in a given text, they will simply be removed or highlighted for the developers so they can take action.
Blacklists (lists of words that are not allowed to be used) can even be created by content creators on different platforms and are being widely used and well known. However, the text creators are aware that some phrases can prevent their texts from showing up to the public. This knowledge enables them to use more descriptive phrases or include a spelling mistake in the middle of the word sequence.
However, in 2024, to ensure the written content is as safe as possible, many AI and machine learning models will be available that consume data and improve their services with every NSFW text they encounter.
These systems are currently offered by OpenAI, for example, known for their flagship product ChatGPT. Their endpoint moderation model offers developers the option to scan any text (in most cases) for free. It is still being developed, but it is already working almost perfectly, and the product is reliable, fast, and easy to use.
NSFW content detection in images
Image filtering is a bit more complicated than text filtering. There are no solutions as easy to use as keyword filtering; however, multiple tools enable image analysis and make it much less complicated to get rid of inappropriate content.
Image analysis relies on algorithms that look for patterns, colors, and objects that they recognize as ones that should not be available on your website. Currently, the technology is so developed that it does a great job of identifying NSFW content, and it requires much luck and effort to trick it. Of course, the technology only gets more reliable, as almost all the tools use machine learning to ensure their APIs work as well as possible.
As the demand for content filtering increases, multiple tools are available for images, and the one worth recommending is Uploadcare’s NSFW image detection API. This product ensures that no inappropriate content is available, and developers can have their content automatically filtered and focus on more productive tasks than manually checking every picture available.
It is worth mentioning that Uploadcare also protects you from malware and enables you to validate allowed file types.
Conclusion
Using NSFW content detection is necessary for creating a safe environment where every user can be present without worrying about inappropriate texts or images occurring on the website they want to visit. Manually checking the content would be tiering and pointless, as there are numerous reliable tools available that developers can use.
Identifying and removing NSFW content using APIs is the fastest, most convenient, and cost-effective solution, and Uploadcare’s or OpenAI’s tools are just some worth developers’ attention. Plenty of other solutions are available, and one can choose what suits them the most. However, the one thing nobody likes is manually checking each part of the content on their website for NSFW elements, and hopefully, not many will have to go through this struggle, thanks to today’s technology.
