Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

Paren'tal Controls

If you're setting up a Standard account, the Paren'tal Controls tab affords you the opportunity to shield your Mac—or its very young, very fearful, or very mischievous operator—from confusion and harm. This is a helpful feature to remember when you're setting up accounts for students, young children, or easily intimidated adults. (This tab is available for Admin accounts, too, but it's empty except for a "Nothing to see here!" sort of message.)

Tiger introduces a lot more peace of mind for paren'ts than other operating systems. You can specify exactly who your kids are allowed to communicate with via email (if they use Mail) and instant messaging (if they use iChat), what Web sites they can visit (if they use Safari), what programs they're allowed to use, and even what words they can look up in the new Tiger Dictionary.

Here are all the ways you can keep your little Standard account holders shielded from the Internet—and themselves. For sanity's sake, the following discussion refers to the Standard account holder as "your child." But some of these controls—notably those in the Finder & System category—are equally useful for people of any age who feel overwhelmed by the Mac, are inclined to mess it up by not knowing what they're doing, or who are tempted to mess it up deliberately.

Note

If you use any of these options, the account type listed on the Accounts panel changes from "Standard" to “Managed.”

Mail

When you turn on this checkbox, a list box appears. Here, you ...