Parental control - desired features

I posted the message below to apple TV feedback page and I though I'd share it with you too, and get a penny for your thoughts; perhaps even brainstorm a bit more on the parental control issue, because WE (parents with young children) need a better and easier parental control...
quote:
"With great power comes great responsibility"... bringing so much digital content to the living room space: movies, music, youtube videos, etc is a quantum leap in our digital entertainment, but this space we share with our young children, thus they need to be effectively protected. Doing this elegantly as well is an art. We want to be able to filter out explicit content (or access to certain rated material, or certain services) easily, securely and hassle free. As of now (version 2.0.2) I can think of TWO reasons why I absolutely don't want the parental control ON (despite the fact that this leaves my young children exposed):
- First, the password has to be enter EVERY time I access something restricted. You would say that this is quite normal, however I'd say it's quite a hassle. If I am the adult ready to access restricted content, I have the option to either turn off the parental control temporarily.. with the hassle of having to set the pin again after I am done... or, I have to enter the pin every time. If i access the restricted material now.. it makes sense that I will also be the one accessing the next restricted material in 5 minutes from now. It's a reasonable time-locality principle. Apple TV should be "smart" enough to know that I just entered a pin to access something a minute ago.. thus not needing to ask for the pin again. This smartness doesn't have to be necessarily implicit.. it could be explicit: apple tv can ask me for how long should it remember the entered pin.
The solution that I have in mind is a Comcast-like parental control that inhibits the parental control for a period of time. Say, i am planning to use the apple tv for an hour.. then I should be able to inhibit the parental control for that given time. This way, I won't be asked to enter the pin over and over again for everything that is restricted. The implementation that I have in mind is: whenever I want to access something restricted.. i will enter the pin.. then instead of just selecting DONE.. I can have the options to unlock for 1 hour.. 2 hours, 4 hours.. and once. These could be easily accessible via the up/down/left/right buttons on the remote (or browse-able)
- The second BIG BIG reason why i don't want the parental control ON.. is that the pin is VISIBLE! If we are all planing to watch something (buy a movie, which is a restricted service, let's say) I will have to enter the pin in visible for my young children to see. Of course this pin will have to be changed later on to something else to make sure the parental control stays what it's meant to be.. a parental control. What good it is a parental control with a public pin?
Solution: instead of visible password.. you can allow the option to click the five buttons left/right/up/down/center in a specific order. How many permutation of 5 buttons can we have? 5! = 12*3*45 = 120, but wait... we can press a button multiple times.. so the total number of codes we can enter is.. whatever you want. e.g. if the codes should have 4 "digits", the number of combinations is 5^4 = 625. Anyway, you get the idea. You should absolutely find a way to replace the visible pin with an invisible one.. using the key combinations is one such solution.
Looking more into the future... a biometric sensor on the remote that will unlock the restricted material instantly by just pressing the finger (fingerprint) on the remote would be awesome. Perhaps this won't make it to the next apple tv remote iteration but it is something that apple is aiming for... ultimate simplicity.
Also an accelerometer based remote would also make the browsing the apple tv content a LOT faster and smoother than clicking buttons (wii-like remote perhaps?). Clicking and holding buttons (quite hard to press for my taste) to go down to the bottom of a 200 song list is quite painful.
Also.. one more thing.. it would be nice to have a HOME button similar to the iPhone home.. One click and i'm back to the main menu. Perhaps a double click on the menu button? I hate having to click 5 times to get out of a music location to get to the main menu. Quicker access please!??
all the best and hope to see these new features soon, so we can ALL enjoy our newly purchased Apple TV.
Thanks.
marius giurgi

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Parental control of iTunes over multiple users

Hi I have been able to move my iTunes folder to public which has allowed another user account to access content. However in this other account I have tried to put parental controls in place. On testing I played a 15 rated movie downloaded from iTunes and it played it no problem not even a password request. Is this due to me moving the iTunes folder to public? Basically I want my daughter to be able to watch only some movies and I don't want to be messing around putting certain films in certain folders and other films in other folders

I am sorry, I gave you the wrong info.
This is a link to a info video on setting up Parental Controls ON a MAC computer NOT iOS
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#parentalcontrols
To set up Restrictions in DVD Player:
Turn on parental control
To restrict access to DVDs for certain users, such as children, turn on parental control in DVD Player.
Choose Features > Enable Parental Control, and then enter an administrator name and password.
To remove parental control, choose Features > Disable Parental Control.
When parental control is enabled and a DVD is inserted, a computer administrator must authorize a DVD before it can be played. You can also set up authorization for a specific DVD.
Sorry about the confusion.

Parental Controls doesn't seem to work as desired

I've read many threads on this topic, but no solutions that work for me yet. I've setup time limits for both kid's accounts. Initially, I thought they were working. However, after each account "timed out", and I allowed additional time using my admin ID (even 15 minutes extra), the time limits no longer seem to work, at least the bedtime login limits. At first, using exact same settings on each account, and AFTER bedtime, the first account that I had allowed extra time for (2 days ago!) allowed login after bedtime.
Next, I tried this on the second account, allowing only 15 minutes extra time. Now my son can login to that account after bedtime. Looks like I can't trust the bedtime controls.
I've disabled parental controls shut down, used command option PR to clear memory, still same problem
Has anyone been successful using parental controls, or do I just stop trusting it?!?

My daughter's time limits were restricted to 30 min per day only, however she found out that rebooting the Mac, 2 or 3 minutes before her time expired, allowed her to start again with a new 30 min session again... over and over.
Time limits file gets corrupted more often than expected, so I solved my issue with the time limits by recreating the file, as follows:
a) Login with your credentials, assuming your accounts has Full Admin rights.
b) Launch a 'Terminal' session. Mine was located at Finder -> Applications ->Utilities -> Terminal
c) Login as root using your credentials with the following command:
Last login: Tue Mar 23 21:20:02 on console
imac-3155:~ myadminuser$ sudo su -
Password:
imac-3155:~ root#
d) Now, as root, go to the following directory:
imac-3155:~ root# cd /Library/Managed Preferences/mydaughtersname/
imac-3155:mydaughtersname root# ls -al
total 80
drwxr-xr-x 10 root admin    340 May 18 20:49 .
drwxr-xr-x   3 root admin    102 May 18 20:45 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 root admin     86 May 18 20:45 com.apple.applicationaccess.new.plist
-rw-r--r--   1 root admin     81 May 18 20:45 com.apple.dashboard.plist
-rw-r--r--   1 root admin   1598 May 18 20:45 com.apple.familycontrols.contentfilter.plist
-rw-r--r--    1 root admin      398 May 18 20:45 com.apple.familycontrols.timelimits.plist
-rw-r--r--   1 root admin     80 May 18 20:45 com.apple.familycontrols.logging.plist
-rw-r--r--   1 root admin    226 May 18 20:45 com.apple.iChatAgent.plist
-rw-r--r--   1 root admin     75 May 18 20:45 com.apple.mcxprinting.plist
-rw-r--r--   1 root admin     97 May 18 20:45 com.apple.systempreferences.plist
-rw-r--r--   1 root admin 11821 May 18 20:45 complete.plist
e) Delete the file containing time limits config
mac-3155:Managed Preferences root# rm com.apple.familycontrols.timelimits.plist
f) Logout from Terminal
g) Logout from your account
h) Now my daughter was able to log back in and the 30 minutes Time Limit was Up and running working as expected, regardless how many times she tried to reboot the Mac...
I hope it helps to those out there.

Parental Controls Buggy

I am using the timer feature and sometimes does not time out. Also it is supposed to log out after 10 min of inactivity but the time must keep on ticking. Any help would be appreciated.
FYI upgraded from Tiger to Snow Leopard.
Thanks

Hello jkzech & welcome to the forums.
Have you had a chance to try this with more than one account?
If not, create another user account, just for testing, and set it up with the desired parental controls and see if it is ok or not...

HT1420 How do I set up parental control on book downloads? My daughter and I use the same Apple ID info.

How do I set up parental controls on my apple account, I want to censor the books that she's dowloading. We use the same account Thanks!

Turning off in-app purchases and the App Store itself would be the best bet for you. You can always unlock these features as needed and lock them again.
Apart from restricting purchases, there are a number of other restrictions you can setup. You can even setup a safe browser with remote parental controls from the App Store, like the one from Mobicip. You may find this tutorial to be helpful: How to setup Parental Controls on the iPad.
Hope this helps.
Disclaimer: This response is posted by a Mobicip representative who may stand to gain indirectly from it.

I would like to know how to block a website on all of Firefox, without using parental controls.

I remember some kind of control or perhaps an add on being advertized for one of the recent beta versions of Firefox 4.0 about blocking particular websites from all viewing on Firefox, not just as a parental control. The add-ons I saw are not for 4.0 Beta 12, the version I'm on now. Can anyone steer me to this feature, if it exists? Thank you!

Possibly BlockSite - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/blocksite
This one does not work on Firefox 4 but the developer is working on a new version.
You could use the Windows HOSTS file to block sites - http://allthingsmarked.com/2006/08/28/howto-block-websites-using-the-hosts-file

Windows Vista Parental Controls Preventing Connection to iTunes Store?

I really have two questions, one of which I think I have resolved but would like to find a more elegant way of handling. Let's tackle that first, after I provide some background.
I have been "managing" the contents of my son's iPod using my computer. Now that he has his own computer it should be up to him. I have two users established on his computer, with me as administrator. I have set up parental controls and am specifiying the websites he can access. I used an external hard drive to copy all his music files to his computer, putting them in a folder under his user name.
When he tries to play music copied from CD's or purchased from iTunes using my computer, a message pops up that says "The song <song name> could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" Absent a way to locate all such songs simultaneously, I click on the yes button and scroll through the list of songs until I find the one desired. Is there a better way, or are he and I going to have do repeat this hundreds of times? I think this needs to be resolved before he tries to sync his iPod with his computer. Correct?
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Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello, Welcome to Apple Discussions.
I have a few things to offer that may make things a bit easier. You mention the library or music content is on an External HD and you copied it to his PC. Is the Hard Data aka the songs themselves still on the computer in a folder?
If so. Delete the songs in iTunes, Select 1 song, then Edit Select All, and Delete from Library. Now go to iTunes - Edit - Preferences- Advanced Tab
-Put a check mark in Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized, Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to the library. Thus whenever songs get added into iTunes a hard copy will be copied into the iTunes music directory stored in
Music - iTunes - iTunes Music.
-Now exit out of Preferences, Go to File - Add Folder to Library - (assuming all the songs from the HD are in 1 massive folder) and browse for this folder. iTunes will scan it, add it into iTunes, and then copy a hard digital copy into the Music-iTunes-iTunes Music folder. You can go confirm the files are there by visiting the folder. The file size of the iTunes folder should grow as you add more and more music.
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

I accidentally turned on parental controls, when I try to turn them off it says my password is wrong when I know it's not. What do I do so that I won't have to wipe everything from my computer?

Trying to fix something else in my settings I accidentally turned my parental controls on. When I tried to disable them it said my password or adminstrative name was wrong when I know they are both right. I even tried to change my password to the account but that didn't help. I don't want to have to delete my account and am not sure how to back everything up if that is the only option. Is there a simple solution to this?

If you have Restricted your MAIN account in the perental controls that may be the reason. You may have to create a new Administrators account to change the settings on the parent controls.
Not sure as I have never used that feature on any computer I own.

Parental control - disk access limit

i work in a university department with about 40 students sharing 8 macs. some of them work with video and audio as part of their studies. only a couple of them could be called experienced. we've created separate accounts for all of them.
the problem is that the startup disk fill up very quickly. buying more hd space would not solve the problem, but i do try to teach them some 'file hygiene'. at the same time i want to totally strip down their access to the startup disk, only allowing them to store to their personal external drives.
i'm looking at parental control and reduced finder, but can't figure a way to remove the 'documents' and 'shared' folders from the dock.
is there another way?

Well... You should be mounting their home directories off of network storage and using quotas. Network storage, though slower, means that they only have data in one place and they aren't leaving stuff on the local machines (they can even work locally can copy it when done, and you can have something cleanup when they log out).
Here's how to implement user disk quotas in OS X: http://www.secure-computing.net/wiki/index.php/HFS%2BDiskQuotas
Most of the various network storage options you have will permit you to set disk quotas as well. NAS devices tend to offer this feature, as do most commonly used operating systems used for file servers (FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X, even lowly Windows).

Due to a scam invading my server, Parental Controls is locked and I cannot add this site as blocked. Any ideas as how I can unlock parental Controls?

Due to a scam invading my computer recently, I cannot block these site in Parental Controls. This feature locks immediately and I must use Force Quit to close. Any ideas as to how to unlock Parental Controls? The two scams appear to be gone as I can now use Safari.

howdy my Scotch/Irish brother (I'm Irish descent - actually Norman invader, but hey)
I'm surprised you didn't ask our gracious Hosts to EDIT the live link in the OP's reply - seems very malicious indeed. I reported it already though asking that it be left as merely a domain name - can't save everyone when the ship sinks
buenos dias
ÇÇÇ

How can i allow java in parental control

Hello,
I want to allow my son to play to minecraft (wich works with java) . I'm adding minecraft to the list of application that he can access (using parental controls)
But when I launch minecraft it ask me to authorize the usage of the application. When I click on always authorize (Toujours autoriser in french) , it keeps asking me the same question. I'm entering the correct admin username and passowrd.
Whenever I click Authorize once, it ask me the admin username and password and then launches minecraft. so it works.
Thank you
Best regards
Jean

Thanks Liam.
I imagined that might be the case, but had to ask in case someone found a way.
I guess I could manually set up subdomains and point them to the individual web-app items. Lot of manual work though. The main purpose would be to give customers a nice tidy URL for them to share. 'myName.thatSite.com' is much better for sharing than 'thatSite.com/profile/myName', even if it ends up showing as 'myName.thatSite.com/profile/myName'
I thought having subdomain wildcards enabled might help - javascript might be able to redirect to the relevant item - but apparently this is not posible with current BC systems.
Do you know if BC are planning to add any API functionality to the site domain management features
Or if they'd perhaps add subdomain wild-cards?
Seems unlikely, but I wonder if this might make something possible.
Cheers,
Adrian

E4200 Firmware 1.0.03 Parental Controls/ Intenet Access Policies not kicking in.

I have configured my e4200 to block traffic at certian times uses both the Parental Controls and the Intenet Access Polices. Neither one seems to work though. The traffic just keeps flowing.
I have the following summary in my IAP:
1    9toMidStoT                 Deny Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu   21:30 - 23:55
2    midto6AMEveryday   Deny   Every Day                              00:00 - 06:00
3    AllowDays                  Allow Every Day                                06:00 - 21:30
4    Late Allow Fri, Sat                                    21:30 - 23:55
Each of the four rules is enabled.
I have the same MAC addresses specified in each rule. Initally I had only the first two rules. Those didn't work, so I added rule 3 and 4 (they do the same thing as rules 1 and 2 but from the opposite direction). There are no compliaints, but they don't stop any traffic.
I started with the Parental Controls, they didn't work either. The page in there that lets you pick which machines you want to block seemed next to worthless. I have about four rows listed as "Network Device." REALLY LAME! As the MAC addresses are accesible and these weren't working I went to the IAP.
Does anyone else have this working? Is this feature broken in 1.0.03? I had it working in 1.0.01.
Thanks!

What happens when you set "block internet access" to always? I have also had weird experiences with this feature.
For example, as I am typing this message, I have instructed the router to block all internet access on this computer (using parental controls), yet I am still able to visit this forum; although, other websites are blocked. I'll also try your rules and see what effect they have on my computer.
I also agree with you about the annoying "network device" issue that happens when the router isn't able to identify the devices' hostnames. There are also devices that appear in that list, which haven't seen in my DHCP table for awhile.
I don't work for Cisco. I'm just here to help.

Parental controls/time restrictions on iPhone

I can safely say that my daughter's iPhone has ruined our lives. We've had it for five days. Yes, there are some built-in parental controls, but Apple has blocked anybody from offering a software program that will turn the dang thing off (I'm talking about texting and calling) at a certain time every night. I have a daughter who is addicted to her phone and the battles are humongous to get her to do anything but text.
There are plenty of good programs with good parental controls for the Android and Blackberry, but thanks Apple for not allowing us as parents to turn the phone off at night. I know about Mobicip, which is a great company, but they can only turn the internet off, not texting or calling. When you have a kid who can and will text 5,000 texts a month, we need something that eliminates the battles at home and can automatically turn the thing off when it's bedtime. We're all losing sleep. Most parents, when they get an iPhone for their kid, don't realize that Apple, unlike Android, has chosen to place more importance on children's privacy than parent's ability to place restrictions on their kids' phones. I plan to take the iPhone back and get her an Android.

The carrier doesn't have to "touch iPhone SMS or calling features. THEY SHUT THEM DOWN at thier end.
http://www.att.net/smartcontrols-SmartLimitsForWireless
Have you even bothered to look to see what AT&T offers? Apparently NOT. You can effectively shut her down on any schedule you like.
Restrict the times it can be used for messaging, browsing and outbound calling.
That means no SMS, no iMessage, and no calling her friends. It doesn't block incoming calls, but messages will be blocked.
Afraid she'll hop on your WiFi and use that instead? Then lock her out of it. You can even do it on a schedule if you have a half way decent router and a few ounces of technical understanding.
FEATURES
ENHANCED FEATURE: Block incoming and outgoing calls and text messages - now up to 30 numbers.
NEW FEATURE: Block calls to 411 Directory Assistance (including 555-1212).
Restrict times of day the phone can be used for messaging, browsing and outbound calling.
Set limits for the number of text and instant messages allowed per billing cycle.
Choose a dollar limit for downloadable purchases (ringtones, games and more).
Select the amount of web browsing/data usage allowed per billing cycle.
Restrict access to inappropriate content with content filters.
COST
$4.99/month per line
OTHER
Calls and text messages to and from phone numbers you designate as “Allowed Numbers” and calls to and from 911 will continue to be permitted regardless of the limits you set.
As your child approaches the text and download limits, he/she will receive an advance warning. Once a limit is reached, there will be a notification that the action is restricted and that the service will be stopped until the next billing cycle begins.
Please Note Important Limitations:

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.

Parental Controls do not work.

I recently setup a computer for my boss' daughter and in doing so enabled the parental controls. Everything appeared to be working correctly until I got a call tonite. When I first setup the parental controls feature, I gave my boss' daughter access to only ONE site.... Yahooligans (The YAHOO SITE FOR KIDS). She came home today and typed in yahoo.com in the address bar and the main site came up with full search capabilities. Eveything else is being blocked as expected but this totally defeats the purpose of having a kids site if the kids can type in yahoo.com and get to the full acess/full search site. Anyone else having these problems..... or know of a third party software for Mac to block content?
Thanks in advance for your input
R
Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Often, when it isn't possible to select an application for use in a "managed" account, the fault lies with the developer of the software for failing to follow Apple's guidelines and omitting eg. the 'CFBundleIdentifier' from the programme's "Info.plist" file.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300842
As the article suggests, it would be best to check with the developer, although it may be possible for a user to edit the file themselves in some cases, but given the effort involved, most people seem to find the alias workaround good enough.
Regarding the presence of the "Shared" folder in a "Simple Finder" user's "Dock", these managed user preferences are all stored in 'mcx_settings' in the "NetInfo" database, in plain text so it is possible (though somewhat tedious) to edit them. Another option is to download the "Server Admin Tools" from Apple, which includes "Workgroup Manager.app" which allows some fine-grained, though not complete control over these settings through the plist editor (it isn't exactly user-friendly either, but it is sort of a GUI).
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/serveradmintools1047.html
However, if the concern is that the user can open applications that haven't been selected, note that blocking access to the "Shared" folder still won't prevent users from launching programmes by other means.

Parental control - desired features

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