Adding Parental Controls

In this lesson for macOS Mojave, I look at how to add parental controls to a user on the Mac. Parental controls include managing which apps are accessible, website, purchasing options, time on the computer, and other options.

Accessing Parental Controls
To access Parental Controls, you need to open System Preferences. One way of doing this is selecting System Preferences under the Apple Menu. Once System Preferences is open, click on the Parental Controls Preference Pane.

Unlocking Parental Controls
The first thing you’ll need to do is unlock the Parental Controls preference pane. To do that, click on the lock at the bottom of the window and then enter your computer password. Once you do this, you’ll be able to see all the options for Parental Controls.

What Users can Parental Controls be Applied To
On the left will be a list of users parental controls can be applied too. You cannot apply parents controls to administrators, so this list will not contain any administrators on your computer. To add a new user, click on the ‘+’ at the bottom. Once you add a user that is not an administrator, you can apply parental controls to that user. Select the user to access the different options for that user.

App Options
When you click on Apps in the tab bar, you can set if you want the user to access the cameras, join Game Center multiplayer games, limit Mail to only allowed contacts, and limit the applications the user has access to.

Web Options
Under the Web tab, you see if the user has unrestricted access to websites, if your want macOS to try to limit access to adult sites (you can customize the sites), or only allow access to specific websites.

Store and Purchasing Options
The Stores tab allows you to disable the iTunes Store, iTunes U, and Apple Books (formerly known as iBooks). You can also restrict content by ratings.

Adding Time Restrictions
Under the Time tab, you can set weekday and weekend limits. You can aloe retract access to the computer at certain times for school nights and weekends.

Privacy Options
Privacy is where you can set what apps have access to your data including contacts, calendars, reminders, and diagnostics.

Other Options
Under Other is where you can turn off access to Siri and dictation, disable editing of printers and scanners, block CD and DVD burning, restrict explicit language in the Dictionary, prevent the Dock from being modified, and use a simple Finder.

Viewing Logs
Under Logs is where you can view the logs that macOS takes.

Copying Parental Controls from One User and Apply Them to Another
Once you set parental controls up for a user, you can copy those settings and apply them to another user. Select the user you want to copy them from and then click on the gear below the liftoff users. Select Copy. Now click on the user you want to apply them to, click on the gear again and paste the settings.

Turning off Parental Controls for a User
If you want to turn off parental controls for a user, select the user, click on the gear below the list of users and then select Turn Off Parental Controls.

See this Lesson Action
To see this lesson in action, take a look at the video above.