Filed under: OS, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Mac 101
Mac 101: Parental Controls
Mac OS X Leopard has a slew of controls meant to keep whipper-snappers at bay protect our kids (and data). They aren't the most powerful tools in the world (especially if Junior knows your administrator password), but they are helpful.
To make use of Parental Controls, you'll first have to create an account other than the administrator account. That's simple enough -- just go to the Accounts Preference Pane and click the "+" button. After naming the user and creating a password, select the user and click the "Parental Controls" button.
There are several options under the following tabs:
- System
- Content
- Mail & iChat
- Time Limits
- Logs
Read on to find out how you can use each of these to customize your children's Mac OS X experience.
Click each to set your preferences. For example, the System tab gives you the option to allow access to only certain applications, burn DVDs, modify the Dock or change passwords (probably a good idea to select that last one).
The Content preferences will let you filter profanity from Mac OS X's dictionary and limit web browsing. You can even tell Safari to restrict browsing to certain sites.
The Mail & Chat settings lets you identify permitted email and IM contacts, and sends you an email notification if Junior strays from the list.
The Time Limit preferences does just what you're thinking -- it makes the computer inaccessible after a certain amount of time. You can set up different schedules for weekdays and weekends, as well as a period of time (say, overnight).
Finally, the Log records just what Junior was doing while you were on the phone bragging about how safe your Mac is. To get the most out of the parental controls, make sure you're logged out of the administrator account and that Junior does not know the password (or just change it regularly). Also, while iChat and Safari are subject to these settings, other applications like Adium and Firefox may not be. So either test them out or exclude them from the approved applications list.
The web is a wonderful place, but some corners of it aren't for the little ones. That paper you've been working on for graduate school should also be kept hidden away. Good luck!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
EMoShunz said 8:12AM on 7-07-2008
as a guy with 5 kids, i can tell you i love the parental controls. i mainly only use it to limit times they are on, but that feature alone is sweet, and as always with os x, very intuitive.
1 HUGE complaint...bonjour craps out on some accounts when parental controls are enabled, it's a known issue in the apple forums, but no fix is forthcoming :(
but, that and the stupid keyboard/mouse locking up on the mini after it sleeps are my only complaints of leopard.
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Peter said 8:54AM on 7-07-2008
>The Time Limit preferences does just what you're thinking
no it doesn't :(
>it makes the computer inaccessible after a certain amount of time.
you'll get a meesage that your time will soon be over. then you just log off and log on again (iirc). the whole time limit starts again from start and your child can play the whole day.
the only thing that works is the schedule. this way you can setup fixed times when your child can play. very inconvienent if you want it to choose when to play
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EMoShunz said 9:02AM on 7-07-2008
perhaps it's a bug. on my systems, after the kids reach the daily limit of 2 hours for a school day, they get a message, then are taken to the users screen (but not logged out) and can not log back in again until the appropriate time the next day (midnight if not set to another time) unless the admin (me) adds more time.
actually, this brings up another little annoying bug...
when they are taken out because of a time usage limit, i can't add more time after they are kicked out. but, if they run out of time because of a set time of day limit i can add more time after the fact. i actually think the bug has to do with them not closing that dialog box when it pops up.
John V. said 8:55AM on 7-07-2008
My kid's not yet 2 years old, so it's not an issue just yet, but it's something I've been thinking about. It would be nice if the parental controls could be linked to a tag in iTunes songs so that I could easily limit his access to some explicit stuff. Don't get me wrong, by the time he's in high-school, I'm sure he'll be listening to all kinds of explicit language, and I'd be a hypocrite if I tried to stop him, but I'd like to not have to explain to his kindergarten teacher how he learned all the lyrics to [insert name of band/song that makes me seem like a cool dad instead of the nerd that I am].
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kevin Smit said 9:18AM on 7-07-2008
iTunes preferences will let you do exactly that.
John V. said 10:14AM on 7-07-2008
Oh.
I guess this shows that I'm still in the "thinking about it" phase. I should check out the options for this in the preferences. Thanks!
Diegus83 said 9:45AM on 7-07-2008
Parental controls are really easy to by pass.
Try opening Front Row (Command-Esc) or use the remote in a managed account? See how it works even if you explicitely uncheck Front Row in the list of allowed applications?
From there you can get iTunes, Safari, Terminal and any application you want.
It's a hole on bot Tiger and Leopard, look for it on the net, maybe your kid already did it.
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Zoli said 9:51AM on 7-07-2008
From my experience, the content filtering built into leopard sucks. If filters all the wrong webpages that have nothing wrong with them (like webkinz) and even allows some pornographic sites through. It's very shoddy. If you want a good program for content filtering, use Content Barrier X4 by Intego.
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Alan said 10:31AM on 7-07-2008
I'm most interested in a history/usage log report. Anyone have experience trying out options for this?
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Jason Smith said 11:51AM on 7-07-2008
I agree with Zoli. The content filter not only blocks webpages where nothing is wrong, but causes problems with pages it does let through. For instance, when purchasing something through Audible.com it craps out right before check-out and doesn't tell you anything other than it cannot connect to the server. When you turn off Web Filtering, it works like a charm. Must be causing a timeout error or something to occur. Thanks for the advice on Content Barrier!
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jjd said 1:40PM on 7-07-2008
I'm very dissapointed in the parental controls. I previously had used a commercial product called Mac Minder that did exactly what I wanted it to do.
Then Apple introduces its parental controls with 10% of the functionality and as a result, MacMinder is no longer published.
Hey apple: Take a look at Mac Minder and put those features into your parental controls. How about:
1. per-program, per-day time limits
2. program groups for use in #1
3. Ability to easily temporarily bypass restrictions and/or add time
4. import/export of user settings
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HB said 4:42PM on 7-07-2008
I've had very bad experiences with Parental Controls - I just don't think it actually works.
Scheduling didn't actually suspend the account. For some reason the message to turn off the computer came over an hour late. Filtering is rubbish. It blocks HTTPS websites unless you approve them. Even when you do it still seems to screw up. It also blocks two essential programs that I use in my menubar: DropBox and BusySync. Also the filtering is pretty inaccurate.
All in all I'm very very disappointed with the feature. Worst bit of OS X imho :/
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Whenhen said 4:03PM on 7-13-2008
The Mac's Parental Controls feature is the worst internet filter that I've ever seen. Being a student, I am used to school filters that block pornography and games. Never before had I seen a home filter that blocks such websites as cnet.com (a site dedicated to computer news), or sparknotes. If you're a parent who is considering activating this, do your child a favor, and buy an internet filter that only blocks unsavory sites.
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slondonr said 11:59AM on 8-05-2008
this thing basically ruined my life...honestly. apple should have put a warning next to the option- not to be used by over protective parents.
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Lisa Hoover said 11:41AM on 8-31-2008
Another niggling hassle with parental controls is that turning them on usually disables access to the iTunes store. I like having the controls in place for my kids but then they're completely unable to use their gift cards at the iTunes store.
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