By Graham K. Rogers

With OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion, there are many changes to System Preferences. The Parental Controls preferences has a panel that is similar to the one in OS X 10.7, Lion, but there are a number of important additions and changes.

Parental Controls is an important section that has a number of uses over and above allowing mothers and fathers to apply any protections they see fit. It may also be used in a school or even an office environment to restrict access to applications and to internet use, so may have a commercial value as well.

Although there was some ability to limit user access in OS X versions 10.2 and 10.3, Parental Controls arrived fully as part of the standard setup for home users' Macs with OS X, 10.4, Tiger. With the preferences, it was possible to restrict access to any applications and also specified URLs: in essence allowing use only of approved sites.

With OS X, 10.7, Lion, this facility has been more revised and strengthened. As well as the ability to prevent use of certain applications, the limits that may be set to URLs include both specifics and types of sites now including online multiplayer games, while email access (sending and receiving) can also be controlled.

Logs of such activities may also be monitored. As well as these restrictions there is the ability to limit the number of hours that an account is used, including beginning and end times. This will help those families with those addicted to playing games non-stop.

Parental Controls is off by default and does not apply to an Administrator account. When the preference panel is opened, other accounts are shown in a panel. When one of these is selected the controls can be activated. The panel then displays five tabs: Apps, Web, People, Time Limits and Other.

The + and - icons beneath the account names will add (create) a new account or offer to delete the highlighted account. This is not to turn off Parental Controls. Using the "gear" icon reveals a menu with shortcuts for actions: settings for one account can be copied and pasted to another; parental controls may be turned off for a specific account; and Allow Remote Setup may also be activated here.

Apps

Simple Finder

A second checkbox is marked Limit Application: the user in that controlled account may only open specified applications. When this is on, a button marked Allow App Store apps is live, with selections from "All" to "Don't Allow" with age limits between: Up to 4+, 9+, 12+ and 17+.

The panel below this is only live when the Limit Applications box is checked. It controls programs that may be used (with or without the simple Finder). By default, all are allowed. By unchecking boxes any or all may be deselected.

At the bottom of this panel is a checkbox to allow the user to modify the Dock, if the parent allows this.

A button (available for Apps, Web and People) reveals activity logs in the account (see below).

Web

A third selector allows access only to specific sites (a "whitelist"). The whitelist already contains a number of sites considered safe, such as National Geographic, Disney and the Smithsonian Institute. Apple - Start is also included. A new member of the list (also included in the Customize section) is YouTube.

At the bottom of the panel are + and - icons so that parents may add suitable sites and any sites on the list may be removed.

More information on using Parental Controls is available on the Apple Website with a video tutorial.

People

At the top is a new section that controls Game center access. While this has been on iOS devices for a while, Game Center is a new feature in OS X, 10.8. There are two checkboxes: Allow joining Game Center multiplayer games; and Allow adding Game Center friends.

As important as any limits to websites are controls on using e-mail and messaging. With a checkbox, the parent can specify addresses which a child can send to, or receive emails from. With another checkbox to the right, address restrictions are also applied to the Apple Messages service. In earlier versions of OS X, this referred to iChat.

If either of the services is restricted by activating the checkbox, a panel is available into which allowed contacts may be added. When adding such information, a panel appears that requires first name, last name and account details including account name and type of service (email or AIM). A triangle beside the last name opens a contacts panel, allowing one-click adding.

Other message services (such as MSN) are not restricted via this panel. When the box for email limits is checked, another box in this panel may be made active to notify a parent (or some other nominated person) if the child tries to exchange mails with someone not authorised.

Time Limits

• The Weekday section restricts computer use to a pre-selected number of hours each day if a checkbox is activated. The hours may be adjusted using a slider from 30 minutes up to 8 hours.

• The Weekend panel is identical to Weekday, but recognises that Saturday and Sunday are not school days and the child may have more free time. The decision is the parent's. As above, the slider runs from 30 minutes up to 8 hours.

• The Bedtime section prevents access to the computer during certain hours. It is in two sections, selected by checkboxes: Sunday to Thursday; and Friday and Saturday. The default times in the windows for each are 8:00 pm and 6:00 am. Both may be changed to any time within the 24 hour day. As before, this section does not take into account that some cultures do not have a Saturday/Sunday weekend.

Other

• Disable use of Dictation. This is a new restriction. Dictation has just been added to OS X and had not been available in earlier versions. When this is checked, users may not enable this in the Dictation & Speech preferences. This would therefore be unavailable for use. This was ON by default.

• Hide profanity in Dictionary will limit access to what is called "inappropriate content" found in dictionaries, thesauruses and Wikipedia. This was ON by default.

• Limit printer administration controls the printer administration. A user may not add or remove printers or change printer settings. This was ON by default.

• Limit CD and DVD burning prevents the user burning a disk via the Finder. This was OFF by default.

• Disable changing the password, when checked, will not allow the user to change the account password in the Users & Groups preferences. This was OFF by default.

Logs

Data in here provides a detailed report of activity in the account. A button allows the administrator to select a time limit for retention of any logs: Today, One week (default), One month, Three months, Six months, One year, and All. A second button allows activity to be grouped by Website, Application, or by Date.

Comments

While parents should work with the very young in their online discoveries, those who are a little older value their independence and privacy. They can feel inhibited and resentful if they sense that they are under observation. Parents have to perform a balancing act between that freedom and the protection of their sons and daughters from the malign influences that may exist online.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.