diff --git a/invokeai/app/services/config/config_default.py b/invokeai/app/services/config/config_default.py
index 5342c97e3c..010de58533 100644
--- a/invokeai/app/services/config/config_default.py
+++ b/invokeai/app/services/config/config_default.py
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ class InvokeAIAppConfig(BaseSettings):
     force_tiled_decode:            bool = Field(default=False,              description="Whether to enable tiled VAE decode (reduces memory consumption with some performance penalty).")
     pil_compress_level:             int = Field(default=1,                  description="The compress_level setting of PIL.Image.save(), used for PNG encoding. All settings are lossless. 0 = no compression, 1 = fastest with slightly larger filesize, 9 = slowest with smallest filesize. 1 is typically the best setting.")
     max_queue_size:                 int = Field(default=10000, gt=0,        description="Maximum number of items in the session queue.")
-    nsfw_check:                    bool = Field(default=False,              description="Enable NSFW checking for images. NSFW images will be blurred.")
+    nsfw_check:                    bool = Field(default=False,              description="Enable NSFW checking for images. If an NSFW image is encountered during generation, execution will immediately stop. If disabled, the NSFW model is never loaded.")
     watermark:                     bool = Field(default=False,              description="Watermark all images with `invisible-watermark`.")
 
     # NODES
diff --git a/invokeai/app/services/shared/invocation_context.py b/invokeai/app/services/shared/invocation_context.py
index 98c49fe3dc..e8d03adc8e 100644
--- a/invokeai/app/services/shared/invocation_context.py
+++ b/invokeai/app/services/shared/invocation_context.py
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ class ImagesInterface(InvocationContextInterface):
             board_id_ = self._data.invocation.board.board_id
 
         if self._services.configuration.nsfw_check:
-            image = SafetyChecker.blur_if_nsfw(image)
+            SafetyChecker.raise_if_nsfw(image)
 
         if self._services.configuration.watermark:
             image = InvisibleWatermark.add_watermark(image, "InvokeAI")
diff --git a/invokeai/backend/image_util/safety_checker.py b/invokeai/backend/image_util/safety_checker.py
index 9fe16c42ea..226237fb55 100644
--- a/invokeai/backend/image_util/safety_checker.py
+++ b/invokeai/backend/image_util/safety_checker.py
@@ -4,11 +4,9 @@ wraps the safety_checker model. It respects the global "nsfw_checker"
 configuration variable, that allows the checker to be supressed.
 """
 
-from pathlib import Path
-
 import numpy as np
 from diffusers.pipelines.stable_diffusion.safety_checker import StableDiffusionSafetyChecker
-from PIL import Image, ImageFilter
+from PIL import Image
 from transformers import AutoFeatureExtractor
 
 import invokeai.backend.util.logging as logger
@@ -20,10 +18,15 @@ repo_id = "CompVis/stable-diffusion-safety-checker"
 CHECKER_PATH = "core/convert/stable-diffusion-safety-checker"
 
 
+class NSFWImageException(Exception):
+    """Raised when a NSFW image is detected."""
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        super().__init__("A potentially NSFW image has been detected.")
+
+
 class SafetyChecker:
-    """
-    Wrapper around SafetyChecker model.
-    """
+    """Wrapper around SafetyChecker model."""
 
     feature_extractor = None
     safety_checker = None
@@ -72,22 +75,9 @@ class SafetyChecker:
         return has_nsfw_concept[0]
 
     @classmethod
-    def blur_if_nsfw(cls, image: Image.Image) -> Image.Image:
+    def raise_if_nsfw(cls, image: Image.Image) -> Image.Image:
+        """Raises an exception if the image contains NSFW content."""
         if cls.has_nsfw_concept(image):
-            logger.warning("A potentially NSFW image has been detected. Image will be blurred.")
-            blurry_image = image.filter(filter=ImageFilter.GaussianBlur(radius=32))
-            caution = cls._get_caution_img()
-            # Center the caution image on the blurred image
-            x = (blurry_image.width - caution.width) // 2
-            y = (blurry_image.height - caution.height) // 2
-            blurry_image.paste(caution, (x, y), caution)
-            image = blurry_image
+            raise NSFWImageException()
 
         return image
-
-    @classmethod
-    def _get_caution_img(cls) -> Image.Image:
-        import invokeai.app.assets.images as image_assets
-
-        caution = Image.open(Path(image_assets.__path__[0]) / "caution.png")
-        return caution.resize((caution.width // 2, caution.height // 2))