diff --git a/qemu-config.c b/qemu-config.c
index 6700de0c71..c05ffbc444 100644
--- a/qemu-config.c
+++ b/qemu-config.c
@@ -362,6 +362,19 @@ static QemuOptsList qemu_global_opts = {
     },
 };
 
+QemuOptsList qemu_sandbox_opts = {
+    .name = "sandbox",
+    .implied_opt_name = "enable",
+    .head = QTAILQ_HEAD_INITIALIZER(qemu_sandbox_opts.head),
+    .desc = {
+        {
+            .name = "enable",
+            .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
+        },
+        { /* end of list */ }
+    },
+};
+
 static QemuOptsList qemu_mon_opts = {
     .name = "mon",
     .implied_opt_name = "chardev",
@@ -645,6 +658,7 @@ static QemuOptsList *vm_config_groups[32] = {
     &qemu_machine_opts,
     &qemu_boot_opts,
     &qemu_iscsi_opts,
+    &qemu_sandbox_opts,
     NULL,
 };
 
diff --git a/qemu-config.h b/qemu-config.h
index 12ddf3ed97..5557562c33 100644
--- a/qemu-config.h
+++ b/qemu-config.h
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 extern QemuOptsList qemu_fsdev_opts;
 extern QemuOptsList qemu_virtfs_opts;
 extern QemuOptsList qemu_spice_opts;
+extern QemuOptsList qemu_sandbox_opts;
 
 QemuOptsList *qemu_find_opts(const char *group);
 QemuOptsList *qemu_find_opts_err(const char *group, Error **errp);
diff --git a/qemu-options.hx b/qemu-options.hx
index 6aeef6a845..3c411c427e 100644
--- a/qemu-options.hx
+++ b/qemu-options.hx
@@ -2723,6 +2723,16 @@ STEXI
 Old param mode (ARM only).
 ETEXI
 
+DEF("sandbox", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_sandbox, \
+    "-sandbox <arg>  Enable seccomp mode 2 system call filter (default 'off').\n",
+    QEMU_ARCH_ALL)
+STEXI
+@item -sandbox
+@findex -sandbox
+Enable Seccomp mode 2 system call filter. 'on' will enable syscall filtering and 'off' will
+disable it.  The default is 'off'.
+ETEXI
+
 DEF("readconfig", HAS_ARG, QEMU_OPTION_readconfig,
     "-readconfig <file>\n", QEMU_ARCH_ALL)
 STEXI
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index 1010248dcd..124d30d3e7 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -770,6 +770,26 @@ static int bt_parse(const char *opt)
     return 1;
 }
 
+static int parse_sandbox(QemuOpts *opts, void *opaque)
+{
+    /* FIXME: change this to true for 1.3 */
+    if (qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "enable", false)) {
+#ifdef CONFIG_SECCOMP
+        if (seccomp_start() < 0) {
+            qerror_report(ERROR_CLASS_GENERIC_ERROR,
+                          "failed to install seccomp syscall filter in the kernel");
+            return -1;
+        }
+#else
+        qerror_report(ERROR_CLASS_GENERIC_ERROR,
+                      "sandboxing request but seccomp is not compiled into this build");
+        return -1;
+#endif
+    }
+
+    return 0;
+}
+
 /***********************************************************/
 /* QEMU Block devices */
 
@@ -2349,14 +2369,6 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
     const char *trace_events = NULL;
     const char *trace_file = NULL;
 
-#ifdef CONFIG_SECCOMP
-    if (seccomp_start() < 0) {
-        fprintf(stderr,
-                "seccomp: failed to install syscall filter in the kernel\n");
-        exit(1);
-    }
-#endif
-
     atexit(qemu_run_exit_notifiers);
     error_set_progname(argv[0]);
 
@@ -3260,6 +3272,12 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
             case QEMU_OPTION_qtest_log:
                 qtest_log = optarg;
                 break;
+            case QEMU_OPTION_sandbox:
+                opts = qemu_opts_parse(qemu_find_opts("sandbox"), optarg, 1);
+                if (!opts) {
+                    exit(0);
+                }
+                break;
             default:
                 os_parse_cmd_args(popt->index, optarg);
             }
@@ -3267,6 +3285,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
     }
     loc_set_none();
 
+    if (qemu_opts_foreach(qemu_find_opts("sandbox"), parse_sandbox, NULL, 0)) {
+        exit(1);
+    }
+
     if (machine == NULL) {
         fprintf(stderr, "No machine found.\n");
         exit(1);