Define safer. If safer means protecting you from being data mined and your personal information sold then yes, it is safer! In the case of malicious attacks its the same as Google, or any other browser but, what separates DuckDuckGo from others is that it doesn't track you while you browse. Unlike other popular search engines, especially Google, that collect, store and sell its users private information, Duckduckgo protects your privacy against the global mass surveillance.
DuckDuckGo describes itself as "the search engine that doesn't track you". They promise not to use cookies to follow its users and say that they don't collect any of our personal information. Even your IP address is hidden when you use DuckDuckGo.