Parental Controls

There are thousands of web sites out there that you don't want your children to see. Unfortunately, those sites are easy to find, sometimes by accident. You can set up a new user account for your children, then turn on parental controls for that account. Only the web sites chosen by you and listed in the Bookmarks Bar can be visited by the user. Other sites require your authorization to be added to the Bookmarks Bar.

To activate Parental Controls

1.	Create a new user account for your child: Open System Preferences and choose "Accounts" (click the plus sign beneath the Accounts pane.
2.	Log in as the new user, then open Safari.
3.	From the Safari menu choose "Preferences…," then click the "Security" icon in the Preferences toolbar. Temporarily, make sure "Enable parental controls" is not selected so you can make changes to the Bookmarks Bar.
4.	Remove all items from the Bookmarks Bar, then visit the sites that you want to make available, and add them as bookmarks to the Bookmarks Bar.
5.	After adding bookmarks for acceptable sites, go back to the Security pane of Safari Preferences and select "Enable parental controls." An "Authenticate" dialog box opens so you can enter your administrator name and password.

The web sites listed in your child's Bookmarks Bar are now available. If a child clicks a link that connects to another site outside of the approved site, the window shown on the right opens. When the "Add Web site" button is clicked, an "Authenticate" dialog box opens so you can enter an administrator name and password.

Parental controls affect only Safari. So don't be surprised if the little rascal tries to download another browser. If you have administrative privileges, you can also set up parental controls for "Finder & System" (to specify the applications a user can open) in the "Accounts" pane of System Preferences.