Copy Leopard Parental Controls through ARD

I have around 150 newer iMacs all running Leopard that I need to change the parental controls on. I have been searching for a way to change the parental controls on all of them at once through ARD, but I have only found a way to do this for Tiger, not Leopard. Simply copying one managed account's application access plist has not worked even after repairing permissions. Anyone have any ideas?

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8463817
This is the link to a thread that I found that had the solution that I was looking for. HUGE thanks to biovizier for the information and the answer to my problems!

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Is there a way to disable a user's Parental Controls through ARD?

So, we have Users with AD accounts, and for some reason Parental Controls is ON, and the only thing it limits is Printer Administration. I don't need this on, there's actually no need for Parental Controls at all, they are all Users, not Admins..
So, is there a terminal command that turns all Parental Controls OFF for all accounts that have it?
And, can i 'push' that out through ARD?

Assuming that they are local and not handed down by AD, you can remove the managed client settings for a local user from the commandline like so:
sudo dscl -mcxdelete /Local/Default/Users/username
sudo rm -rf /Library/Managed\ Preferences/username

Change Parental Controls via ARD

I'm trying to determine the most efficient way to add a particular application to 150+ users in 2 different facilities via "Parental Controls" in System Preferences.
There doesn't seem to be any easy way to globally affect all the users' preferences. I'm hoping I don't have access each user station one-by-one. I was thinking that I could replace the related plist file in all the users, but I can't seem to find the one that drives parental control settings.
Any ideas out there?

hi mecklists thanks for your response.
I've explored a workgroup manager-based solution, but right now that's not viable. I think I'm either gonna find a way to do it globally via ARD, or I'm gonna bite the bullet and go station-to-station.
Specifically the problem is that users currently can't calibrate their monitors with the Display system preference, because some apps are made inaccessible through the parental control settings. I've discovered in need to make an application called "Display calibrator" available, along with the Colorsync Utility.
The solutions I'm exploring are:
- Create an automater/applescript script to launch globally through ARD. Main problem: I don't know how to do this, or even if this is possible.
- Create a good plist file to copy into users' folders via ARD. Main problem: I can't figure out which plist files drive parental control settings, if any.
- Go station-to-station. Problem: repetitive task which won't help me learn anything.
-RR

Snow Leopard Parental Controls and iChat (Can't see iChat anymore)

I enabled Parental Controls on my daughters profile. I left applications to unrestricted access, and unrestricted access to web sites (but I still review the log)... I selected to LIMIT iChat and then added the people she can chat with (she's 8).
The problem is, it looks like iChat is online. It's in her dock. Has the little white light dot on underneath the app but I can't see the chat window. You know, where you actually double click on someone to chat with? What gives???
When I go to iChat preferences and on the Accounts tab, "enable this account" is not checked, but it's grayed out so I can't check it!!

It seemed to crop up in Leopard with the first Parental Controls and has yet to be "sorted" in Snow Leopard.
I tend to think it is because Parental Control Updates are out of Step with iChat ones but I have no real insight as to the cause.
11:13 PM Saturday; March 20, 2010
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

Ichat, Snow Leopard, Parental Controls

Just got my son's new 21.5" iMac and updated to latest Snow Leopard patch. Migrated all user accounts from a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5.8 with no problem.
My son's account has parental controls enabled.
Setting ichat on the new mac for his account was interesting. First, there was no Account Type option available for Jabber or Google Talk. Others were there (incl. AIM). Strange.
I changed his account to Standard type and finally was able to configure the Jabber account for him. Proceeded to test video chat and text chat and it all worked fine.
Now, I proceeded to restore parental controls and now ichat can't get online with the jabber servers. I haven't tested with Bonjour. If this is by design, then it's a poor design.
Anybody else with the same experience?

Opps,
My mistake.
Yes the Parental Controls work on the Basis that you Set iChat up and add any Buddies under supervision.
Then you set the Parental Controls so that unknown Buddies cannot be added to either the Jabber (which will include any GoogleTalk ID used) and also this will stop a further AIM/Apple or Jabber/GoogleTalk Account/Screen Name/Buddy List being set up.
The presumption is you want to know who your child is talking to.
If they could add Buddies or Create a Screen Name you did not know about they could circumvent that.
Most of the major IM services are supposed to have a 13 year age limit on the people who use it.
In practice this cannot be supervised by the Server end.
I think that Apple still has a way to go on iChat and Parental Controls.
The fact you cannot use Bonjour to call your kids for a meal seems at odds with the fact they can still call their Buddies.
9:43 PM Saturday; November 14, 2009
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

Using ARD to copy Parental Control Whitelist?

I'm relatively familiar with ARD and use it to manage many aspects of a 50+ mac school. Older students have accounts (and thus Parental Controls) managed by Snow Leopard Server, but each computer also has a local account which is managed by the Parental Controls on the local computer. Unfortunately Parental Controls in Snow Leopard turn out to have a rather disasterous bug which prevents connections to secure sites. This is causing havoc when students try to use the state-mandated testing sites. We of course filter at other levels, but we have to have Parental Controls in place in this account.
All I wish to do is use ARD to copy whichever files are necessary to copy a master "Whitelist" to each of the client computers, but I've had no luck whatsoever figuring out how to do this.
So, let's say "Master" is my master computer and "Clients 1-50" are the rest of the systems. I should be able to go into my "Master" computer admin account, access Parental Controls for my "master copy" of my "localstudent" account, set the whitelist for that account, and then copy the necessary files to every client machine in a few seconds using ARD.
Can anyone please (PLEASE) tell me which files I need to copy?
Thanks in advance!

I've located a couple threads on this topic here and at other forums, but the solutions are always absurdly complex and cumbersome (and, the ones I've tried returned errors, so no go anyway). Every setting on a computer (other than those few in firmware, such as your Startup Disk preference) have *got* to be in a file of some kind somewhere, and thus should be able to be copied from one computer to another.
Does nobody know where this darn whitelist file is stored?
(I don't need to copy all Parental Control settings, just the whitelist, but I sure don't want to have to add multiple exceptions to 50+ computers just to get around Apple's stupid SSL bug with parental controls.)

Installing/using parental controls on a snow leopard server machine

Here is the question: Is there any way to permanently install parental controls in on a mac mini with Snow leopard server software on it?
My situation:
I manage a computer lab of 40ish computers using Apple Remote Desktop, which does not have any support for parental controls. I have these computers set so that their P.C.s can be remotely managed, but they can only be managed from a machine which has parental controls in the system preferences. I can only manage the P.C.s from one of the other lab computers, which are under student use 90% of the time. The server mac mini did not come with the P.C.s preference pane, and so it is fairly useless on that front.
I have tried various methods of getting around these blocks. I was able to copy the parental controls .prefpane file from one of the lab computers on to the server, and when I ran it, it installed into my server computer and placed the preference pane in System Preferences. For a brief minute I was able to manage the lab computers' P.C.s, but once I restarted System Preferences, the P.C. preference pane disappeared, and will not re-install or anything (I get a "it is not available to you at this time" message).
Is there any way to use the server to manage parental controls?

Hi
+"Is there any way to permanently install parental controls in on a mac mini with Snow leopard server software on it?"+
I don't think so? Besides there's no need for it. Parental Controls is available as a Managed Preference (or MCX) using WorkGroup Manager either at Users, Group or Hardware Level. Launch the application and click on the Preferences icon and you'll see what I mean.
Tony

Changing parental controls on multiple agents

Anyone know how to change the parental controls using ARD? I want to copy a set of permissions and send it out to all of the macs in my lab.

I believe the file you are looking for, for the most part, is com.apple.applicationaccess.plist. The problem is that, apparently, not all of the restrictions (safari being an example) are found in this file.

How do I install iTunes with a Windows 7 account that uses parental controls?

I have setup a small computer for my daughter to use, running Windows 7 Home Premium. I've enabled Parental Controls through the control panel. So far, I've been unable to install iTunes for her. If I try running the installer as admin, when I try to run iTunes as her, I eventually get a message telling me that itunes64.msi was rejected by the digital signature policy. If I run the installer as her, I get a message saying the system administrator doesn't allow the app to run; I have added the installer to the list of allowed applications. Anyone know how to install iTunes in this case?

Hi mlheidt,
If you are having trouble installing iTunes on your Windows 8 computer you may want to use the following article to help you get it up and running -
Issues installing iTunes or QuickTime for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1926
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

Parental controls

Since "Parental control" on Leopard is currently "busted", see thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1618967&start=0&tstart=0
What are some other effective 3rd party parental control apps available that is recommended? I've done google search but information is quite limited in terms of their effectiveness.

Although I've never used the Leopard parental controls (my kids' machine is an old iMac with Tiger, I've never bothered to upgrade it), I've never been happy with the control of web sites in the parental controls. Fortunately, there's a free solution: [OpenDNS|https://www.opendns.com>. One of the features of OpenDNS is that you can limit access to specific groups of web sites (like adult sites, among others). You can apply this protection to one machine or to your whole network. I changed the settings on my AirPort base station to use OpenDNS, which means my access is also limited (not a problem for me), but I don't have to worry about what sites my kids are looking at on their iPods or on the PSP. Any wifi device will be unable to visit places I don't approve of.
Good luck!

E2500 Parental Controls problem

Hello,
I am trying to set up parental controls through Cicso Connect, or the advanced router settings, for a new laptop on my network. The problem is that is will show up on the DHCP client table, but not in the parental control list. Not sure if it's important, but he new laptop runs Windows 8, while all others are Windows 7. Any ideas on how to set up the parental controls for this new laptop?
Thanks!

We need to further information on your win 8 laptop to diagnose the issue:
Is your win 8 laptop connected to the guest network? If yes, try connecting it to main network.
When you connected the win 8 laptop to the network, it prompted if you want to turn on sharing, did you select yes or no? Try selecting turn on sharing.
Is the netbios broadcast enabled on your win 8 laptop? make sure it is enabled
What security software are you using on your win 8? Try turning off your security system
Make sure network discovery is ON in your win 8 laptop.
You may also try turning off and on your router.

Is there parental controls you can place on this router to not allow activity on certain websites and times? I know that the Netgear router does this.er

Is it possible to restrict what sites(FB etc.)are accessed through this router and times certain devices can be allowed wifi access?

Not directly on the router but you can setup parental controls through external/3rd party services. For example OpenDNS allows you to setup parental controls which are managed from their site and a separate account. Once you have OpenDNS configured you can tell your 4G LTE router and personal devices to use it as their main DNS service.
More info:
https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/parental-controls/

How do I change parental controls on multiple machines through ARD

I am trying to manage 36 new iMacs in a high school classroom setting. I need to adjust the parental controls on all 36 machines so that they all have the same restrictions. I am running ARD but cannot figure out how to do that... any ideas?
Billy Woody
EVHS High

You could probably write a UNIX script that would pull from a list of MAC addresses for each computer and send the appropriate IP address, but unless you have a lot of computers you need to change, writing such a script may be more work than just sending the commands individually.
Of course if you change the IP address on a computer you're working with via ARD, you'll sort of be pulling the ladder out from under yourself, so the task will never report as completed. You'll need to quit it manually and re-add the systems. This may also affect running of a script for further systems; I've not tried to change IP addresses en masse so I don't know.
Regards.

Copy parental control settings has no effect

My daughter's controlled account semed to be completely corrupt. Most icons were question marks, nothing worked as it should etc. So I have deleted it (there was no data to speak of ... she is only young).
When creating a new acount, I want to copy her Twin brother's settings exacty .... but I do not seem to be able to do so.
Within parental controls, using the cog icon, I can copy from Ben and can paste to Rebekah ... biut this has no actual effect on the settings ... I still have to go through a list of applications, timings etc. and try to set them the same!!!
What settings are copied usong the cog menu?
How do I copy the other settings?
Thanks.

+ if i set?the?speakers to the the default audio device, i get no sound from the headphones. here are some pictures. i dont see anywhere where i can change the audio controller.<img border="0" src="[IMG"]http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae8/milktree47/2.jpg[/IMG]">
<img border="0" src="[IMG"]http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae8/milktree47/.jpg[/IMG]" align="bottom">?

The time limits on the parental controls do not work. Apple does not seem to know how to fix this issue since the problem has been going on since at least leopard.

The time limits in the parental controls do not work. I have several mac systems and they do not work on all of them. Also, I have had this problem since at least snow leopard and it is very frustrating that Apple is unable to fix a simple issue like this. All they have to do is somehow 'hard-wire' the time limits to the system clock but they are not listening. I used the feed-back feature in their support webpage and hopefully everybody else experiencing this issue will too. Thus, if they get a thousand notes on this issue they might listen and finally fix it.

Well, the whole system with those time limits are funky. Sometime this happens, sometime that happens. When the user is on the bed time limits do not work nor do the length of time limits. It is very frustrating as one of the reasons I bought an apple in the first place was those parental controls which did not exist in Windows prior to Windows 7. I do have a Windows 7 machine now and the bed time limits work there. Maybe you have a Windows 7 machine as well and can let them use it.

Copy Leopard Parental Controls through ARD

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