Hacking parental controls
Learn about the workarounds for parental controls that your little darlings may try
You may well encounter some resistance to setting up parental
controls. Fortunately, macOS allows you to tailor the operations kids can perform, according to how responsible they are.
Some kids may decide however to take to the internet in an attempt to find out how to bypass these controls, and indeed there are a number of websites devoted to getting around the restrictions you’ve just set up.
The security of the restrictions depends on you keeping your user account password safe, so be sure to change it if your child used to share your account, or if you suspect they may know it. Make sure to do the same for any other admin accounts.
Your child’s next best option if they want to undermine parental controls is to try to create a new, hidden admin account, so they can log in to the Mac and have unrestricted use of its features.
Tech-savvy kids
There are several ways to create a new admin account, such as enabling the root account, or restarting in single-user mode and entering the necessary commands. Once this is done, a tech-savvy kid will most likely hide the account so it doesn’t appear in the /Users folder, nor in System Preferences > Users and Groups. Follow the steps opposite to make sure your child hasn’t done this. Next, consider setting a firmware password (see top right). This password prevents anyone starting up the Mac in singleuser mode to enter commands that create a new account or otherwise interfere with your parental controls.
If you do choose to set a firmware password, this will also be required each time you want to start up in macOS Recovery, in which the ‘root’ account can be enabled and passwords reset.
Another option your child may try is to install another operating system, such as Ubuntu Linux, on a flash drive and start up from this. As the system would load from that drive into memory, no trace of your child’s activities would be left on the Mac. You can prevent starting up from external drives without first entering the firmware password by following the steps on the right. Write down the firmware password and keep it safe; if you forget it, you’ll need to take your Mac to an Apple Store or Authorised Service Provider to reset it.
Smoke and mirrors
Should your kids find they’re unable to create an admin account on the Mac or start up in another operating system, they may try to find workarounds within macOS itself.
Go to System Preferences > Users and Groups and make sure the Guest account is disabled, as parental controls will not log any activity there.
If you haven’t set up explicit app restrictions, gifted kids may try to install ‘portable’ apps to an external drive and run them from there. You can prevent access to external drives by choosing the Simple Finder option in the parental controls pane’s Other tab. Alternatively, choose to limit applications in the Apps tab to only those you approve.
When it comes to browsing the web, although you can block individual websites, your kids may be able to circumvent restrictions by visiting a web proxy – a website designed to bypass controls like these, which will fetch the website for them. Keep a close eye on their account logs; if you find they’ve been visiting such sites, add them to the banned list.
Certain websites, such as Pirate Bay, maintain mirrors – in other words, multiple copies of the same web page at different locations around the internet. For this reason, while one mirror such as thepiratebay. org may be on the blocked list, another such as pirateproxy.cc may still load. Again, watch your child’s web activity closely and add mirrors of sites to the block list as necessary.