Parental Controls On Your Mac

By Dan Hinckley

15449 responsesParental+Controls+On+Your+Mac2009-07-11+11%3A47%3A17Dan+Hinckley. »

As the internet remains a Wild West of content where users are free to “stumble upon” content areas of many different classes and computer tasks are continually being moved to internet based platforms, more and more parents are interested in locking down the computer experience of their children.

Included in Mac OS X Leopard are Parental Controls that will allow you to keep track of what applications your children can use, how they view the desktop and finder, the websites they can or can not visit, as well as who they can email and instant message.

These controls provide a sense of security for parents that are worried about what their children may “digg” up while learning new ideas on the computer.

To setup Parental Controls on OS X Leopard:

Open System Preferences and then select Accounts

Next, unlock the settings so that you can make changes by clicking the Lock in the lower left corner, enter your password to confirm the unlock request

Select the user account on the left navigation for the account you’d like to apply Parental Controls. If you haven’t already setup an account for the user you’d like to restrict, you can also do that from the Accounts section of System Preferences
Once the account is selected select Open Parental Controls

Now that the Parental Controls option is open, you can select the System setup you’d like available to the user. Simplify Finder, Limit availability of Applications, lock down the dock and creation of CDs, etc.

The other tabs across the top will allow you to limit the content available to the user included what they view on the web, Mail & iChat will limit who they can talk to, and Time Limits will restrict access during certain times of day or limit the length of time they can compute and browse the web.

Additionally, if you’re still concerned about what the user may be trying to get at, you can setup logs to report back on their computing behavior.

About Dan Hinckley

Dan Hinckley is an experienced Mac user who converted to Apple products when they introduced them on Intel Processors. He loves helping others get more out of their devices! Subscribe to Maciverse.com to get the latest from Dan and the Maciverse Team!! Find out more about Dan: Dan's Google Profile

15449 ResponsesParental+Controls+On+Your+Mac2009-07-11+11%3A47%3A17Dan+Hinckley so far.

A Snow Leopard Is Coming!
August 24, 2009 at 7:11 pm
[...] Parental Controls On Your Mac [...]
A Snow Leopard Is Coming! « BeginnerPC : Tips , Tricks & Tutorials
September 26, 2009 at 8:28 am
[...] Parental Control features on your Mac are also available in Snow Leopard that can help you control the computer experience of your children. The features included in Snow Leopard Parental Controls are similar to previous OS versions. [...]
JJ
October 10, 2009 at 8:08 pm
If i cant click on parental controls or accounts how do i unlock them?
Chec
June 16, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Thanks for the info! And did you read any reviews of Actymac ScreenShots Remote? I found it on actymac.com. I think it's good program because I can watch of my Mac in real time by iPhone or iPad. What do you think about it?
Chec
June 16, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Thanks for the post. And did u know anything about Actymac ScreenShots Remote? Did u read any reviews of this program? I know that it allows to get screenshotrs of Mac with iPhone or iPad.
beekums
August 19, 2011 at 6:28 pm
What is it about Apple that does not seem to like parental controls. My McAfee software used to work but has been rendered inoperative by the "upgrade" to Lion. Since Lion doesn't really improve functionality (in fact it reduced it until I learned how to turn off the stupid "hot corners" , I wish I'd never moved from Snow Leopard.
lori
October 23, 2011 at 5:45 pm
I set up web-site restrictions for my daughter. Facebook was a site I approved and included in the list of sites she was allowed to access. But now when she tries to access facebook it's this funky format. It's words only down the left side of the page. Wierd. She hates it, can't really use it so now she has NO RESTRICTIONS while on the web. That makes me crazy nervous. I hate it. HELP!!
- Dan
  October 23, 2011 at 5:48 pm
  What's happened is you've allowed the page but the page where the CSS (The code that tells the page how to load) is still blocked. If you find where that is and allow it, the entire page/site will work.
  Usually this doesn't happen, but Facebook must put this somewhere else than on their standard servers.
KLH
November 20, 2011 at 12:46 am
I'm having a problem where I want to block facebook, but when I list it on the "never allow " these sites part, and leave the "always allow" area blank, it denies access to all sorts of other sites. Is there any way I can block a site without enabling "block all adult content" sites? I don't want them watching adult content, but it's keeping them from accessing gmail and google docs which they need for school.