How to Keep Kids Safe on the Computer with Mac OS X Parental Controls

With Mac OS 10.5's built-in parental controls, a parent can restrict how long a child uses the computer, what websites the child can visit and what programs they can use. Parents can also monitor online chat logs and emails. Even if security is not your goal, enabling parental controls may keep children from accidentally changing computer settings which can cause problems.

Getting Started

Creating a new child's account - Open up System preferences from the Apple Menu and choose Accounts. Click on the '+' button to create a new account. Note: you may have to click the lock button in the lower left hand corner of the accounts pane and type an administrator account in order to create a new account or make changes. Select Managed with Parental Controls from the drop down menu at the top. Next, click Create Account and the account will have a Parental Controls button at the bottom of the Account profile pane that will take you directly to the Parental Controls pane.

Adding Parental Controls to an Existing Account - Open up System preferences from the Apple Menu and choose Accounts. Select the account that you want to enable Parental Controls from the list on the left and check the Enable Parental Controls box at the bottom of the account pane and then click Open Parental Controls Button.

Working with Parental Controls - Once inside the Parental Controls pane, security and restriction are broken into four categories: System, Content, Mail and iChat, Time Limit and Logs.

System

This is what gives the Mac its unique look and feel on the desktop. In Apple's description, Simple Finder "Provides a simplified view of the computer desktop for young or inexperienced users." This option takes away most of the Mac's administrative functions and control panels from the user account. The Only allow selected applications option goes a step further and restricts which programs on the computer that the child can use. Checking this option will bring a predefined list of programs that Apple considers safe, but individual programs can added or removed from the window below.

Checking the Only allow selected applications option without the Simplified Finder option will present an even more controlled desktop where the child cannot look at the Mac's Hard drive directly. They can only see the Applications folder and their User folder.

At the bottom of the pane are check boxes where you can restrict functions like administer printers, burn CDs and DVDs, change their password and modify the dock.

Content

This pane restricts dictionary lookups and filters the Internet for that account. Website Restrictions offers three options:

Allow unrestricted access to websites which does not filter any internet access.

Try to limit access to adult websites automatically - This turns on a content filter that tries to keep kids away from unsafe websites dynamically as they surf. The customize option allows parents or add or remove websites from the automatic filter. This filter is designed only to work with Apple's built-in web browser, so enabling access to other browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome may defeat the security. Apple details how it decides which sites to filter in this article:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2900.

Allow Access to only these sites- This is the most restrictive and safest option for young children where a parent creates a list of websites that the child can visit. All other websites are blocked until they are added to the list. New sites can be added from the Parental Controls pane or dynamically as the child surfs to new sites by entering in an administrator account and password at the blocked website screen.

If these web controls are not detailed enough, then you may want to look at a commercial program like BumperCar by Freeverse for $29.95. It is a web browser designed for kids to use with controls built right in. In addition to web filtering, it has tools to protect children from giving away personal infomartion

Mail and iChat

Parents can restrict who children e-mail and chat with by adding authorized addresses to the list. If the child receives a new e-mail or chat from someone not on the list, then the Mac can be configured to send a permission request to a parent's e-mail address with the checkbox at the bottom of the screen. These restrictions are designed to work with Apple's Mail and iChat programs and will not restrict e-mails and chats from other programs or online mail and chat accessed through a browser. Those sites need to be blocked through the content filter. For example, if a parent has restricted a child's Gmail account in Apple's mail program, but the child, can go directly to Gmail.com, then their mail will not be filtered.

Time Limits

This pane keeps kids from spending too much time on the computer or staying up past bedtime. Restrict computer usage by Weekday, Weekends and Bedtime. Parents can grant more time by entering in their administrative account and password at the time expired screen so kids can finish their homework. Note that the computer usage timer does not stop until kids log out of the computer. If they forget, then it will eat up their computer time, but this can teach young computer users to make logging out a good habit.

Logs

This allows parents to monitor the computer usage. It shows websites visited, websites blocked, Applications used and iChat activity. Clicking the restrict button at the bottom will block any questionable activity in the future.

iTunes

Apple's music player and media manager has its own set of Parental controls. They are not accessed in the System Preferences, but in the preferences within iTunes itself. Click on Preferences under the iTunes menu and click the Parental tab at the top. Here, parents can disable Podcasts, Internet radio, the iTunes Store or Shared Music Libraries. Media files in iTunes can be restricted to certain content ratings like TV-PG or PG-13 movies.

Administrator Account and Automatic login

All of these security features are based on the premise that the child has a account that is different than the administrator account. If the child knows the administrator account, or master account for the computer, then they can bypass any of the restrictions in place. By default, Macs log in with the primary account automatically. It happens in the background, so most users do not even realize that it happens. As soon as you create the new account for the child, the Mac will ask if you want to disable Automatic Login. To disable Automatic Login manually, click Login Options in the Accounts control panel.