When Yahoo acquired Tumblr a couple of months ago users of the platform had two main concerns.
First, that Yahoo would introduce ads to the platform, and second, that it would limit access – or do worse – to adult or NSFW blogs hosted by the service.
Ads were introduced not long after the acquisition, and it appears that Yahoo made changes recently in regards to adult and NSFW flagged sites on Tumblr as well.
Tumblr makes a distinction between adult and NSFW flagged sites, with the latter containing occasional nudity or mature-oriented contents, and the former containing substantial amounts of those contents.
The flag determines what is happening to the blog under the new rules:
As you can see from the table above, consequences are more severe for blogs flagged as adult, as they are not indexed by search engines or Tumblr search anymore, and also do not appear on tag pages for logged out users or logged in users if Safe Mode is enabled (which it is by default).
When you try to open a link pointing to a tag that mostly leads to adult contents, or a blog flagged as adult, then you may receive no search results at all, or may not be able to open the blog if you are not logged in, or if you are logged in but have Safe Mode enabled.
This means basically that your only chance of accessing adult blogs on Tumblr, and adult is used widely here as it may include educational blogs for example, is to use a Tumblr account with Safe Mode disabled. In other words, if you do not have a Tumblr account, you cannot access adult contents anymore on the site.
Disabling Safe Mode
Update: Things have changed a bit. You won’t find the option to enable NSFW blogs and search results on the Dashboard anymore. Access to adult content is disabled only when you run searches, but not when you click on links to open blogs or posts directly.
Instead, it is available directly on the search results page but only if you are signed in to an account.
There you find a padlock icon on the far right that you can click on to enable or hide adult flagged search results.
Adult content is hidden by default on Tumblr, and there is no option for users without account to reveal it on search results pages.
Content can be accessed directly however by clicking on links from third-party sites for instance.
Update End
To turn off Safe Mode, open the Tumblr Dashboard by following the link directly, or by opening the settings and then Dashboard after signing in manually on the site.
Locate the “Browse tag pages in Safe Mode” and uncheck the option. Click the save button afterwards and you should be able to access NSFW and adult blogs and tag pages again on Tumblr.
While it only mentions NSFW blogs, it enables access to both NSFW and adult blogs.
Appeal
If your blog has been flagged by mistake, you can appeal the decision by sending an email to the service’s Trust & Safety team.
You do need to include information, including an explanation why you think that your blog was mistakenly flagged, in the email.