Mac® Security Bible

3.6. Using Parental Controls

Mac OS X's parental controls enable an administrator to impose various limits on a Managed account. Although the feature was originally designed for parents to restrict how their children can use a Mac, it's also useful in numerous other contexts — whenever common sense, company policy, or other considerations dictate that particular activities should be strictly controlled.

Parental controls can apply to any non-administrator account. To configure them, choose System Preferences, click Parental Controls, and then choose an account. The settings you can adjust fall into several categories.

3.6.1.

3.6.1.1. Enable or disable parental controls

If the account isn't already enabled for parental controls, click Enable Parental Controls. To remove parental controls, click the pop-up Action menu at the bottom of the account list and then choose Disable Parental Controls for User Name.

3.6.1.2. Remote management

You can adjust parental controls from another computer, which is useful for administrators of large Mac installations as well as for parents whose children have their own Macs. To enable this capability, you can either click the Manage parental controls from another computer check box (visible only if the account doesn't already have parental controls ...