What does NSFW mean?

NSFW stands for ‘Not Safe For Work’ and describes content that’s suitable for adult eyes only and shouldn’t be viewed at work. Links or emails marked with the ab­bre­vi­ation should not be opened at work.

What NSFW means

NSFW is one of numerous chat ab­bre­vi­ations that seems harmless at first glance. However, when you receive a message marked with the ab­bre­vi­ation at the office or home, it’s best not to open it. Similarly, when browsing a website marked with NSFW, you should think twice before clicking on the content. NSFW stands for ’Not Safe For Work’ or ‘Not Suitable For Work’ and the warning should be taken seriously.

While tech­nic­ally it could refer to any content that’s not con­sidered ap­pro­pri­ate in a work en­vir­on­ment, in most cases, NSFW media are images or videos that are not suitable for young people and contain nudity or por­no­graph­ic content or de­pic­tions of violence. The origin of NSFW can be traced back to platforms such as Reddit or 9Gag, which aren’t ex­clus­ively aimed at adults and needed a simple des­ig­na­tion to separate sensitive from harmless content. The portals have dedicated threads and filtering options marked NSFW. In addition to its use on websites, NSFW is now also being used in emails.

How to deal with NSFW content?

There are few work­places which would welcome NSFW content. In the worst case, you could face serious con­sequences if you open such content during working hours or using a work computer. What these con­sequences entail depends entirely on your company’s corporate culture and com­pli­ance agree­ments. However, it’s best to avoid trouble and not click on NSFW emails or websites at the office. If the content was sent to you by someone you know, you could view it later at home or a safe en­vir­on­ment.

To be on the safe side, you can mark NSFW messages as spam and set up an auto-delete filter. Sorting undesired messages is easy with the Gmail spam filter or the Outlook spam filter or al­tern­at­ive programs. If you’re tempted, bear in mind that your employer may have access to your browsing history and messages. Therefore, NSFW is just that: not suitable for work.