Macgasm

Once again apple’s made it really easy on us, and more importantly on parents who want to lock out their obsessed children from World of Warcraft. Trust me, I know all to well how addicting that game is (shout out to the peeps in Lag Spikes ! ) Anyway, one thing I seem to get asked a lot by windows users is how to monitor their children in XP. Well, I’m quick to point out that leopard now has built in software, and that they should probably upgrade to the Mac anyway. I know, I know, I’m such a shill. So, without further ado, here is a quick how-to for setting up parental controls in Leopard. Sorry windows users, you’re on your own! You can watch the video:here, or subscribe to our feed in iTunes.

It all goes down in System Preferences

If you open up your system preferences, and look under the System section there should be a bright yellow icon called parental controls. Click it, and we’re ready to roll!

Oops, we need to set up an account for the “kids” first

I lied, I do that sometimes, before you click on the parental controls, we need to make sure that we have another account setup on the computer before we can assign it some parental controls. So, here we go!

1. Go back to the system preferences
2. Open up the accounts: click on the accounts icon
3. You should see two columns: if the column on the left is grayed out a little you need to unlock it.
4. Click the pad lock on the bottom of the window, you should be prompted for your password, put it in
5. Now click the + sign at the bottom of the left column.
6. Click on the drop down box, and change Standard to Managed with Parent Controls
7. Fill out the rest of the stuff, Name, Shortname (this is the username), Password. Verify it. Hit the Create Account Button
8. It’ll take some time for Leopard to setup your desktop space for that account, but once it’s done it should be added to the list of accounts in the left column.
9. Highlight it, and click the open parental controls button

Setting up the parental controls

Now we’re back to where we need to be in order to setup the controls. Sorry about that! Just for the record, by clicking the open parental controls button, we are essentially doing the same things as opening up the system preferences, and clicking on the parental controls icon: two ways to get to the same point. Lets set up parental controls.

1. Again we have two columns here, click the account you want to lock down and control in the left column.
2. Here we go. You should now see a System Tab, Content Tab, Mail & iChat, Time Limits, and Log Tab.
3. The System Tab lets up control two major things, the simple finder, and the applications the user will be allowed to use
4. The simple finder lets you slim down the desktop for really young users, so you might want to try it out. I’m of the mind that scaling back OS X even more is a dumb idea but… two each their own!
5. If you want to determine the apps the child can use, check the Only allow selected applications box.
6. From here you can go through the options in the window below and check or uncheck the appropriate applications
7. You should probably check out the check boxes below that window to, do you want the child to be able to administer printers, burn CDs, change their password, modify their dock? You can control all of this from this tab.
8. The content tab lets you lock down both the internet, and the dictionary. What’s wrong with the dictionary? Well apple’s been so kinda as to put in a bunch of cuss words. I’m all for it, but it’s not appropriate for a four year old, so you can turn it off here. You can also limit access to adult websites, or set specific websites your kids can view here. Really handy stuff.
9. In the Mail & iChat tab you have the ability, as a parent, to restrict who your children are able to communicate with in these two applications. You can input a name and email address/messaging address, and your child will only be able to communicate with these people. This is a great way to make sure that your children are not talking to sketchy strangers.
10. And now for somethings really handy, monitoring your kids World of Warcraft Addiction. The Time Limits tab lets you set up usage restraints for the computer on a user by user basis. You can set up an hourly limit for week days, and for weekends. You can also prevent access to the computer during specified hours on school nights, and weekends, for instance, between 9pm and 10am.
11. Finally, the logs tab lets you views information about what the account is doing. Websites visited, applications used, iChat logs. It’s a perfect tool for keeping a watchful eye on your kids without having to keep peering over your shoulder.

Apple has made it really easy to maintain control of your computer, and let you have a small piece of mind, and one less thing to worry about. Are there ways around these controls… you bet ya, but if your child is old enough to figure it out, chances are, he shouldn’t need all these restrictions placed on them. If the do, and all still industrious enough to figure out a way around it… you might have a little genius on your hands… get their IQ tested! One other note: if you have more then one child it would be in your best interest to set them up each of their own accounts so you can gear the restrictions to their age, bed times, and school needs. It will also let you track down which one of your children are breaking the rules by talking to randoms on the net. You wouldn’t want to ground little Jimmy, when it’s Sally breaking all the rules would you?

Video Goodness

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