Parental Controls - Logs of Websites Visited Empty.

Recently gave my old Black MacBook to my 10 year old son.
Set up parental controls and all seems to be fine, except the Logs of websites viewed is empty.
Doesn't matter if I look at them on his MacBook or remotely on my MBP. How can I fix this? Any advice please? He's getting to an age where curiousity is taking him to some darker corners of the internet I'd rather he'd didn't see yet. Mostly these sites are auto-blocked but there are some I'd like to know he's visited so I can block them manually.
Thanks.

I've never cared for Apple's implementation of Parental Controls and recommend a full feature program like K9 Parental Controls for Mac. It's free for home use. Just don't forget your Admin password. It's required for uninstallation.

Similar Messages

Parental Control log showing websites were visited that weren't actually visited

Trying out the parental controls on 10.8.5. I log into my child's account, and visited a few websites. When I went back to parental controls and checked the log, all the websites I visited were there, but there were also several sites in the log that I did not visit, such as Disney.com and the Wall Street Journal website. What's the deal? Are these just popups that got blocked or something? I just set up my child's account a couple minutes ago, so I know I'm the only one who has ever accessed it. Thanks!

Hi ...
Disney or WSJ would not be available in history just because the pop up blocker is enabled.
Great article for using Parental Controls > Configuring Parental Controls | Macworld
And here > OS X Mountain Lion: Set up parental controls

Parental Controls logs pretty useless for viewing

Here's a very simple use case where the "logs" feature fails miserably:
We give our daughter complete access to the internet, but occasionally - usually when the homework she does takes 2-3 times longer than it should - we want to check the logs to see whether her online time is actually spent at homework-related sites. Last night she didn't go to bed 'til midnight, so today I wanted to check which web sites she visited between 10pm and midnight. Simple enough, right? Not with Mac OSX's half-baked log feature
I go into Parental Controls and click on the Logs and proceed to "Web Sites Visited". I am greeted with "Show activity for: One week" and "Group by: Website" followed by a list of web sites that have been visited in the last week.
Problem 1: Since "Yesterday" isn't an option, I have to slog through logs for a whole week. Worse yet, since the grouping by website doesn't give any date information whatsoever at the top level, I'd have to individually open the hundreds of sites she's visited in the last week, just to find the ones she went to last night. Obviously not feasible. So, I change the Group-by to "Date" and - conveniently, there's a "Yesterday" drop-down. Cool! Well, maybe not:
Problem 2: When categorizing by Date and you drill down on "Yesterday", it shows all the web sites visited yesterday, but since the log window is too narrow and isn't resizable, you can't even see the full URL, much less any timestamp there might be appended to the web site URL.
Now what kind of asinine implementation is this? Did Apple actualy pay a developer to produce such an horrendous interface? Worse yet, Apple hasn't seen it fit to fix this mess in several releases now. I just upgraded to 10.8.3 and it's the same useless garbage.
I searched on the net to see if there's some other way to view this information (the access data is stored in a file called events.data in /Library/Application\ Support/....) and came across a suggestion to load a Firefox extension for SQLLite and view that file through it. I actually got that working, but the dates given in this database weren't meant for humon consumption - they're just numbers. So I did a reverse sort on that column and, voila, I see my daughter's most recent accesses....except I don't know where to stop reading, since I'm only interested in most-recent to 10pm last night. But isn't it pathetic that I have to jump through all these hoops - just because some amateur developer at Apple hasn't seen it fit to allow horizontal resizing of the window - or at least a horizontal scroll bar? Worse yet, that Apple hasn't done a thing about it since at least Snow Leopard? So frustrating - since it would be such an easy fix.
Finally to my question: does anyone know of a way to view this log that doesn't require extensive knowledge of the system, SQL, etc. - like a graphical tool built into Mac OSX?

I have the exact same question and issue. When I check to see all the apps he's used in the last year, it comes up blank in the logs. All I get in the logs is rejected websites ending in late January.
Does anyone know where the logs are stored? My other kids' logs are working just fine which is the real puzzler.

Parental Controls logs - freeze computer

I've recently enabled parental controls on one account on my Core 2 Duo MacBook running 10.5.5.
Several times I've run into the same problem. When looking at the logs of internet sites visited or blocked on the account, the settings application freezes - giving me an endlessly spinning beachball. I am unable to force quit the application from the dock, from force quit on the apple menu, or from the activity monitor. I am unable to log off my account, because the settings application is still running and it cancels the log off attempt. The only solution I've found is to restart the computer. This has happened several times, and is the only reason I've been forced to restart the computer in many months. Is this a known issue? Any suggestions?
Thanks for your help.

HI ForrestGreen,
Try Disk Utility and Repair Disk Permissions. Launch Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities). Select MacintoshHD 10.x.x in the panel on the left, select the FirstAid tab then click: Repair Disk Permissions. Quit Disk Utility when it's finished and reboot. Go to System Preferences/Parental Controls and see if it functions as it should
Hopefully that will do the trick, if not post back.
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Parental control log viewer - still broken after all these years

I check this with every major OS X update. I know this has been a bug since 10.5, I think it goes back much further.
First, some background. In all versions of OS X there's a "logs" feature that allows an admin to see the sites a user has visited. It's the primary way for an involved parent to teach wise computer use. Set parental controls to 'automatic', let the user go, then review the logs with your favorite teen.
Problem is, the log viewer only expands horizontally. So many entries can't be read. You see only the beginning of many site labels or URLs. The window control has been broken too -- it shows the normal resize control even though it only works in one direction.
So Apple fixed it in 10.7
Not the window mind you. They fixed the control. Now it shows the window can only resize vertically.
Yes. The engineer was in the code. And they left the window broken but fixed the control.
It's a conspiracy. Apple is trying to drive me crazy.
I think it's working ...

Thanks for your help!
Thanks for your help!
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Hunt [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 9:27 AM
To: Harold Gaskill
Subject: [Premiere Elements] Re: Still crashing after all these years ....
What version of PrE are you using? If PrE 8, have you updated to PrE 8.0.1?
I did upgrade
Are you running as Administrator?
Yes
Is PrE installed on your C:\?
Yes
Have you updated your audio driver?
Yes
Have you updated Apple QT Player?
Yes
This *http://forums.adobe.com/thread/483270?tstart=0* will give you tips on setting up your computer for an editing session.
This *http://forums.adobe.com/thread/446365?tstart=60* will give you tips on finding clues as to what is happening with your system and your application, when a hang/crash occurs.
Good luck,
Hunt
This message was sent to: Halmeister
To post a reply to the thread message, either reply to this email or visit the message page: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2801049#2801049
--end--

Automator actions in Parental Controlled log-in

I have an Automator workflow that has a few actions in it which I am looking to use in a parental controlled users log-in (mainly because it will be for public use, and I want the availability to be limited as possible.
I have set up the user account to enable things like Preview and Actionscript which are used in the workflow, but I seem to get to one point which is an Action from Automator, and it fails. I have enabled Automator, but that doesnt seem to work either. Is there something I can enable in Parental Controls that will mean these actions will work successfully? I know this is a bit vague, and hard to explain without seeing the workflow, but Im just wondering if anyone knows what the actions would be operated by if it isnt Automator itself?
Cheers
Alastair

The basic set of Automator actions is located in the /System/Library/Automator folder. Other actions can be downloaded, but an application can also provide actions that Automator loads from the application bundle. I'm not sure how the parental controls figure into it, but if you are using an action from an application that is not allowed, perhaps Automator isn't loading it - what kind of error are you getting?

Parental Controls Log Location

I'm migrating a parental controlled computer's data to a new computer. Where is the location of all the logs ie. iChat? Note: they are not in the Documents/iChats folder since parental controls is on.

Since I mentioned I'm migrating all my data, one would assume that these logs are an item I wanted to be migrated also. I know where they are to view them, but where are they located to move them?

Clearing Parental Control Log

One of our kids got into some web sites he should not of - and thanks to the Parental Log, we've had a l-o-n-g conversation and we a teachable moment was to be had. I would now like to clear the logs, purging my computer of icky-ness. Is there a way to do this? Thanks in advance....Fourwoods

I'm not sure about that...I checked on my husbands MBPro in the Library/Support......folder and there is but one folder in that as well: Airport (which is the same folder in that location on our other computers). There must be a slight difference in our machines? Considering he had no clue that his actions were being monitored (actually, I did not either..I must have set that up long ago and stumbled upon this log looking for something else) I know he cleared the browser history but that's it. Since I had the log set to record only the past week, I wonder if the items will automatically clear themselves after one week? The offending date's one week anniversary will be this Sunday so I'll post back. Let me know if you come up with anything else....Thanks! kraen

Mavericks: Parental Controls: Messages Logs not working

Hello - my parental controls appear to be working ok - except for monitoring Messages via the "view logs". When I attempt to view messages it has no content even though she (my daughter) has been using the Messages app and it says something like 50 messages were exchanged.
She has an iPhone too so is it possible that the iPhone messages don't come into the Parental Controls logs of Messages? - even though the Macbook DOES show her iPhone messages in the Messages app when she's logged into the computer ?
Thanks in advance

A debt of gratitude goes out to this guy for solving the issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/11846530#11846530
Essentially, make sure the email address listed in the Mail.app account of the person receiving the "Always allow" mail and the email address listed in Parental Controls>Mail>notify are the same.

Clearing logs in Parental Controls

I am wondering if there is a way to clear the logs in the parental controls?
I've been searching but I can not seem to find it... Oh, and I do have administrator access!

The parental control logs do not appear to be in the Console. There was the Apache2, Access_log that appeared to be what I was looking for, but upon deleting it, the access_log for the parental controls still existed.
Why am I clearing the logs? Curiosity and paranoia

Parental Controls virgin media problem

Hi everyone, I'm on a macbook running 10.6.8.
I set up a user for my young children, and using parental controls restricted the websites they could view. I've allowed youtube, and the parental control works great because they can't click on the ads etc.
Last sunday I upgraded my virgin media broadband to Large and plugged in my new 'superhub' modem/router.
When I finally had it all set up and let them back onto the computer, we went to the kids user and tried to visit youtube.com and it just wouldn't load up at all. Error message was – "the connection was interrupted" and said that couldn't connect, youtube wasn't available etc.
On my user we were able to access youtube, allbeit really pretty slowly. Was pretty confused as this is youtube! one of the biggest websites in the world, surely youtube wouldn't be 'down'.
My 'tech'y friend said that he'd found out that virgin use their own youtube servers in order for it to be quicker etc.
Do it need to allow a different website on the parental control list now? Or is there some other setting I need to change/add somewhere?
Must be some kind of change in the information reaching my computer as the website is not blocked and the error is different to when trying to connect to a blocked site.
Have posted on the virginmedia forums, bot nothing yet. Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks...

So, I appear to have fixed it:
I opened the parental control setting bit on the Mac. Under the 'web' tab it helpfully includes a 'logs' button.
This shows the websites visited [with number of times etc and when] plus also the blocked websites [websites that have tried to be accessed but failed].
So just went on to the kids user and tried youtube – knowing that it wouldn't work – then went back to the logs on my user to located the problem.
Said 'Ntl' had just been blocked twice. You can then chose to 'open' that site on my user – opened some website that included some letters and number but ended .lan.ntl.com/
I was then able to ADD that site to the allowed list. And bobs' your uncle – it now works!!!!
Hooray!!!
Apple you geniuses ......

Think parental controls have been installed on Mac book pro

Hello,
Does anyone know how to check if parental controls have been installed on my Mac. I have a lot of issues going to certain websites and my safari was having issues loading. Plus I had weird files on my disk that would set to different numbers. I'm not a child and believe someone linked my laptop. Please help remove controls.

Privateperson87,
to check if any user is under parental controls, log in as your administrative user and open the Users & Groups pane of System Preferences. It will show your users on the left-hand side of the window, and whether those users are administrative, “standard” (i.e. non-administrative), or “managed” (i.e. under parental controls).

Parental Controls, Passwords, & Administrative Users

I am thinking of buying a couple MacBooks for my teenage kids. I'm pleased to see that Apple has finally added usable Parental Controls, particularly the website tracking feature. (Teenagers need to be able to go anywhere but also to realize that someone is at least potentially looking over their shoulder.) But my kids also need to be able to run updates and otherwise install software on their machines. In Leopard can I give them administrative privileges without allowing them to turn off Parental Controls? I assume this could be implemented either through a super-adminstrator account (I always establish a 'master' as well as an 'administrator' account, in addition to individual accounts, when setting up a family computer) or through a separate password established by whoever first sets up Parental Controls. (The latter approach would probably be better, for the same reason that an administrator should not have access to a user's documents.) But I can't find anything online that indicates exactly who can access and modify Parental Controls under OS 10.5. Thanks.

Hi--
After looking in a few places I have to say that your problem an interesting one.
There are some options that are useful for your problem:
The first being applications; no, there is not a way for them to 'install' applications into the 'Applications' folder without administrative privileges, however they can install them into their own 'User' directory so long as those applications are not dependent on certain admin privileges.
Installing applications mean that they would have power to install other web browsers etc that wouldn't be logged by Parent Controls, so this is the trade off of needing your assistance in that matter. If you are with your children most days then things like Updates can be added when you are aware of them as well.
If however you're more interested in monitoring your children's activity without them knowing then you may be out of luck for now, because no matter what they need that Admin login to do system updates or add applications to the applications folder, so they're going to know they aren't in control of their computers completely.
Hope that helps somewhat,
[J]
Message was edited by: x1n933k

Parental Controls -- Managed Account Time Limits

My son's MacBook Air is running Mavericks OS X 10.9.3; MacBookAir6,1; Intel Core i5
I set a 2 hour time limit per day and upon the 2 hours expiring, the system logs him off. Then he shuts it and closes it for the night.
However, upon opening it the next day, the login screen prompts him for a time extension. It's a whole new day and the 2 hours should start over, but they don't.
Worse, when I go to extend his time to let him log on, it sometimes gets caught in a loop of some sort where it will allow him back on per my administrator password to allow it. It will allow him on for a split second, then immediately restrict him again saying he reached the maximum time limit and the administrator box shows up again. The only way I've been able to fix this is by deleting his managed user profile, then adding it in again, once again defining all the parental control parameters, allowed websites, etc. It's a pain. I do try to have him log off at the end of his sessions thinking that it will help keeping things orderly, but if the computer cuts him off, I'm guessing that he was automatically logged out and I am not sure that's the case. It cuts off his time (as it's supposed to) nonetheless. Overall, it's as if the computer's date/time function doesn't factor in to the parental control settings. How could Apple overlook such an obvious detail when planning for time limits? Please, Apple, get these two parts of the OS working together. So...
Honey-Do List for Mavericks OS X Gurus
Get the Date-Time settings to jive with Parental Controls; kill the loop that occurs when time extension requirement shows up first thing the next day
Create a countdown timer of a sort for managed accounts that keeps the user aware of how much of their logon time is used/still left
Pretty please
Thanks!

I have found the most common way is simply this: he knows your administrator password. To see if this is the case just change your password (don't leave a sticky note laying around with the written down password on it please) and see if he's still able to get his way.
Also, restrict access to applications like Terminal. Some Google searches could have shown him how to get stuff done through the command line.

Parental controls a nuisance since Yosemite

Since the change to Yosemite Parental Controls "misbehaves":
- when granting extra time the extra time is "lost" whenever the user logs out or even goes to sleep mode. Until 10.9 that wasn't the case and extra time was kept for the remainder of the day.
- whenever any other change is performed in parental controls (e.g. granting access to a new website), extra time is lost as well and the (parentally controlled) user is logged out.
- stupid but not a real problem: the audio warning that time is about to expire is still English-only but the English text is now read with German pronounciation ("parental controls log out in xxx minutes").
Any idea if this can be rectified by the user or is a bug thats need fixing. (I do hope it's not a feature).

Hi,
I have experienced the same problems, and others.
For example, the website blocker "Allow access to only these websites" is not working as expected. All allowed websites work ok (as expected). However, several websites not on the "allowed" list are accessible but some random ones are not. There does not seem to be a pattern.
Under yosemite I cannot find any way of resetting the parental controls or getting them to work as expected. I have searched for a solution including deleting the files in /Library/Managed Preferences, turning off the controls and turning them back on again and rebooting. I wonder now if Yosemite stores the control files in the /Library/Managed Preferences directory at all any more. The files correctly disappear when you turn the controls off, but then when you turn them back on again the last known configuration is restored, so they really do not go away and supposedly are stored somewhere else. But where?
The App management controls do seem to work ok. However, unless the web blocking code is made to work then parental controls right now are useless (actually, worse than useless as they are misleading people into thinking sites are being blocked when they are not).
Parental Controls have often been buggy in Mac OSX and I am not sure why. I can imagine some parents/employers getting litigious.
Yosemite 10.10.1

Parental Controls - Logs of Websites Visited Empty.

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