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.

Similar Messages

Netboot and a Parental Control managed account

I am trying to set up a group of kiosks (Mac Minis) using NetBoot off of OS X Server 10.5.2. I've created a netbootable disk image with two accounts. One is an admin account, the other is a managed account with Parental Controls.
My thinking was that I could lock down the managed account and limit the websites that can be visited as well as apps that can be launched using Parental Controls. Everything seems to work fine except one important piece. Neither Firefox or Safari can actually access the internet. I always get a connection error from the browsers. If I run network diagnostics, it returns green on all levels. Similarly, in a Terminal window under that same account, I can ping the webservers I'm trying to get to.
Does anyone have any ideas why Parental Controls on that account seem to limit the ability for the browsers to see the Internet? It works fine when the original image is booted locally. Are managed Parental Control accounts not compatible with NetBoot? Any suggestions?

Ok, this gets more interesting. Based on more testing, I believe there is an incompatibility between Netboot and a Parental Control account. I tried doing a port scan using Network Utility (ports 0-1000) in a variety of accounts both local drive boot and Netboot. The results are further below.
For some reason, the Parental Control account on the Netboot device does not see port 80 (http) off the computer it is scanning. As you can see there are three different cases. The http and https protocols are where the discrepancy occurs. Anyone know if this is by design or a bug? I find it hard to believe I'm the only one trying such a solution but this seems to be a pretty significant roadblock.
*_Netboot Parental Control account results:_*
Port Scan has started ...
Port Scanning host: 10.16.31.84
Open TCP Port: 22 ssh
Open TCP Port: 88 kerberos
Open TCP Port: 139 netbios-ssn
Open TCP Port: 443 https
Open TCP Port: 445 microsoft-ds
Open TCP Port: 548 afpovertcp
Port Scan has completed ...
*_Original HD/OS that is the source of the Netboot image in Parental Control account:_*
Port Scan has started ...
Port Scanning host: 10.16.31.84
Open TCP Port: 22 ssh
Open TCP Port: 80 http
Open TCP Port: 88 kerberos
Open TCP Port: 139 netbios-ssn
Open TCP Port: 443 https
Open TCP Port: 445 microsoft-ds
Open TCP Port: 548 afpovertcp
Port Scan has completed ...
*_Other instances results:_*
*(Includes Netbooted Admin account,*
*Netbooted Standard account,*
*3rd machine hard drive boot as an additional example)*
Port Scan has started ...
Port Scanning host: 10.16.31.84
Open TCP Port: 22 ssh
Open TCP Port: 80 http
Open TCP Port: 88 kerberos
Open TCP Port: 139 netbios-ssn
Open TCP Port: 445 microsoft-ds
Open TCP Port: 548 afpovertcp
Port Scan has completed ...

Safari can't establish secure connection in parental controls managed user account

Hi,
Safari can't establish any secure connection in parental controls managed user account. Normal web sites open OK, but secure connections, like Gmail which requires https doesn't work. This is what I get instead:
Safari can’t open the page “https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=mail&passive=true&rm=false& continue=http%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2F%3Fui%3Dhtml%26zy%3Dl&bsv=llya694 le36z&scc=1&ltmpl=default&ltmplcache=2&from=login” because Safari can’t establish a secure connection to the server “www.google.com”.
Any ideas how to overcome this?

Do you have anti virus software installed, or Peer Guardian?
"https note: For websites that use SSL encryption (the URL will usually begin with https), the Internet content filter is unable to examine the encrypted content of the page. For this reason, encrypted websites must be explicitly allowed using the Always Allow list. Encrypted websites that are not on the Always Allow list will be blocked by the automatic Internet content filter."
From here:
Mac OS X v10.5, 10.6: About the Parental Controls Internet content filter

How can I restore Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup?

I was trying to adjust one of the parental controlled accounts for my child. I disabled parental controls, rebooted, and re-enabled it. Now all the settings that I had setup before are gone. How can I restore Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup?

Hi ...
I've found a solution to my problem.
Time Machine locates extenal HDD backups differently depending if they were done via a network or via a USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt connection.
My initial backup was done via a direct Thunderbolt connection. I ran into the above issue b/c the second time when I tried looking for the backup file the HDD was conencted to my iMac and I was accessing it via a network conenction.
I simply connected the drive directly to my MacBook pro and ... voila. I was able to see the backup, select the iPhoto library and begin the restore.
Hope this helps.
BTW - I found this out by reading the 'blue box' selection on this page: http://pondini.org/TM/E2.html
(Thanks goes to Pondini!)

Parental control & network accounts

Is there any way to set up parental control for network accounts?
All my family member's accounts are of the network type, including the kids'. However, it appears only managed users can have parental controls turned on.

Kevin,
I wondered if you had found a way to access the various logs available on Leopard client but when using network accounts. I'm proposing using it in a school but without the logging facility it won't be feasible.
Thanks
Alistair

Retrieving Parental Control Settings from Time Machine Backup

After having 20+ websites saved for "Allow access to only these websites" in Parental Controls I was experimenting and clicked on "unrestricted access" which caused all the websites we had saved to disappear when I decided to go back to "Allow access to only these websites." Is there anyway using Time Machine to recover the sites we had chosen? Any recommendations on ways to back-up the sites, so if I have another problem I can fix it easier?
Thanks!

You won't be able to see them in the nice display of the current settings as when selecting +Mail > Preferences+ from the Mail Menubar.
And, neither the data (emails) or preferences are stored in the application.
The preferences and settings are stored in this file:
*<your home folder>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist*
If you can read XML, find that file in your backups via +Finder > Time Machine,+ then double-click it to open it with QuickLook.

EA6300 Parental Controls device multiple time

I have parental controls on my EA6300 with the latest firmware. A device is listed multiple times under parental controls with different settings for each listing. I have rebooted with no luck.
Is there anyway to remove the multiple listed devices?
Thanks.
Ed...

If the device is listed as "Network Device" than the router might not be able to get the devices hostname. In which case compare the MAC address of the device to confirm which device it is and use DHCP reservation to reserve an IP Address and name for the device.
Please remember to Kudo those that help you.
Linksys
Communities Technical Support

Multiple Applications in Parent Controlled User Account

I've been running Mac for a while but this is the first time I've set up a second user. I'm also not as Mac savvy as a lot of you are on here but I can make my way around, so please be patient with me if I ask a silly question or two.
In setting up a user account for my "Kids", I used the Simple Finder, limited their applications to a select few, and limited their web use to a set number of web pages as they are still quite young and are just beginning to use computers. Everything worked out well, except when we log out and back in again. When we do this, a second copy of applications show up in the Applications folder. With every log in, there is a new set. I think we are now up to 19 copies of each application allowed.
I deleted the shortcuts and they reappear. I've deleted the user account entirely and carefully set it all up again. Same thing. I tried deleting it again but ditto with the result. I've restarted multiple times. I've reset the PRAM. I've deleted prefences files. I've ran a Mac Cleaner. I updated to Mavericks from Lion in hopes it was related. It still does it. This is driving me nuts. I've googled and googled. I've searched these discussion boards. What am I missing? Surely there is something relatively simple to resolve this? I'm out of ideas and I'd really like this fixed so my kids can use their user account.
Can anyone help out a stressed out mom?
Thanks in advance.

I still need a bit of guidance with this please. When I enter the expanded finder and open up the "Kids" Library folder, under Managed Items/My Applications, it lists all the duplicate application shortcuts. I've deleted these again. Put them in the trash, logged out and restarted. Once logging back in, again, I have duplicates occuring. What is going on?? Please help. I'm not sure what else to try or do. There has to be a simple fix to this. Doesn't there?

Is there a way through parental controls to limit time by weekly totals?

OK, so I am trying to limit time on the computer by hours per week instead of a daily total. is there any way that anyone knows how to do this?
For example, I would like to limit computer use to 3 hours total per week.
That being said, I would like to 3 hours to be able to be used whenever.
It could be monday morning for 3 hours, or friday for 3 hours.
Or monday 1 hour, tuesday 1 hour, and wednesday 1 hour.
however the user wants to spend their 3 hours.
Anyone have any ideas?

The sponsor is not happy for low res printing either. As an organisation we should be looking at DRM more closely, and we've added to the requirement with this problem. We are also going to look in to the option of attaching metadata and scanning that at our exit points (e-mail, printers, usb's, etc.) so that users have free reign internally but can't send sensitive documents out. Obviously it's all going to be very expensive!
Cheers for the respones guys.

Did Mountain Lion 10.8.4 broke parental controls again

After update to 10.8.4, parental controls broke again. Any account with parental controls enabled is not able to access youtube and other https sites. Web restriction was set to "allow unrestricted access". I use parental controls to set time limits for my kids. I've tested creating new accounts and the same problem occured. The same thing happened when we upgrade to Mountain Lion initially but was fixed after 10.8.2.
This is frustrating. After many good years with OSX from tiger.. the recent updates have not been the best experience.

Thanks for your response.
To elaborate, the iMac was already on Mountain Lion 10.8.2. After the recent update to 10.8.4, something within the parental controls broke. Current users as well as new accounts with parental controls turn on will not be able to connect to youtube. Once I turn parental controls off, the users were able to access youtube again. This applies to safari, firefox and chrome.
I've tried various things settings in parental controls but it seems that as long as it is on, the same problem occured.
The same symtoms occured some time ago when I first upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion. It was fixed after the patch right after 10.8.2.
The changes were done using admin account.

Non admin removing parental control

Re subject above, I have non admin users who claim and have removed the parental control of access time limits by entering key sequence at boot.
How can that be stopped?

I don't believe it.
What key sequence?
They would have to know an "admin" password to make any system changes.

How do I allow parental controlled users to access third party apps on the admin account?

I just set my son up with a separate parental controlled user account and he can't seem to access some third party games that we installed for him under my admin account. He has saved progress on these games that we don't want to lose, so I don't want to reinstall them. I checked them off as allowed apps, but when he tries to play- the game icon shows up in the doc then changes to the updater icon and they won't run. I've searched for answers to this question, but can't seem to find any. Please help? My son and I would be very grateful!

jeremiahfromva wrote:
Mavericks (isn't that an old Ford model?
Sure was! They used it on 4 different models. But that was Maverick, as in horse. This will be Mavericks as in ocean waves.

Mac: Firefox software update process will not authorize in parental controlled account-Bug?

OS: 10.7.5
Firefox 20
Parental Controlled user account: Firefox and Firefox Plugin processes are checked in parental controls. No other Firefox processes are visible.
When logged into parental controlled account, user launches Firefox from the Dock. Message appears:
You do not have permission to run Firefox Software Update. Admin required authorization.
Admin clicked Always Allow, entered admin name & password. Firefox would not launch.
Logged out of Parental Controlled account.
Logged in to Admin account.
Launched Firefox. "About Firefox" shows Firefox up to date.
Logged out.
Logged back into parental controlled account.
Firefox opens.
Is this a bug or is there some other reason the admin authorization failed?

I have a student that is having the same issue. Whenever she attempts to open Firefox, either from the dock or applications folder, she gets the permission error. I tried this under an admin account and get the same error, and it will not go past it, even with the admin user/pass. A strange icon appears in the dock for a second and the disappears, but Firefox never opens.
We have around 1600 student laptops in the school and I am seeing this on one of them. I have confirmed that she is running the latest version of Firefox and have tried to clear out the preferences, but there don't appear to be any.
Does anyone have anything useful to add to the conversation? Tyler just doesn't seem to be grasping the issue.

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.)

Linksys ea4500 with parental control , policy , enhancement

i have EA4500 and parental control features are very limited which are very disappointing
Following features are required
in websites block there should be "websites allowed only" so i can allow 7-8 websites only to my kids to view
Keywords filtering should be available or if i may able to apply a policy for family filter like stuff
It should have domain blocking as i have to block www.youtube.com but they can open m.youtube.com and i have limitation of 8 sites only???????
The Netproofer app is bugy and doesnt help perfectly and it should either be decleared as beta and should not associated with linksys otherwise should be inproved for required level of purpose
Is there any solution or should I go to other brands ????

The EA4500 and the rest of the Linksys Smart Wifi routers have a streamlined Parental Controls feature. It allows time- based restriction and website blocking per device. This feature solely restricts access and does not have the option to permit certain devices to have access to the internet (during specific times) or selected websites.
If Netproofer does quite work as it should, you can install and reinstall the app. If you're still having issues, contact the app developer.

Parental Controls -- Managed Account Time Limits

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for