Master parental controls

Use your Mac’s built-in tools to make sure your kids have a safe experience when you can’t be there

Use your Mac’s built-in tools to make sure your kids have a safe experience when you can’t be there – and prevent them circumventing your protections…

There’s no substitute for sitting with your child when they’re using a computer to make sure they don’t see or do anything that might be harmful. However, which parent hasn’t had to divide their time between their kids and household chores? As your kids grow older, they may also deserve a certain amount of privacy when using the family Mac, too.

Fortunately, macOS offers the next best thing to watching over your kids’ shoulders: parental controls. These can be configured by creating managed user accounts for your children, and you can then enable or disable specific features. For instance, you may choose to disable the webcam and iTunes Store altogether, or set time limits on when the Mac can be used. Parental controls also includes “whitelists” and “blacklists” for websites, and apps to make sure your children are accessing only age-appropriate content. The settings are smart and you can make exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up managed accounts for your children, as well as how to tailor the parental control options as you see fit. You’ll also discover some common ways tech-savvy kids try to circumvent parental controls, and how you can reduce the chance of this happening.