araym

Q: Parental Controls bug in Mountain Lion 10.8.2

For years I've used Parental Controls, not to restrict my daughter's web content, but to limit her time on the computer.  But tonight I upgraded Mountain Lion from 10.8.1 to 10.8.2 and something broke.

 

Suddenly every secure web page she tries to access (to include google, gmail, amazon, etc.) fails.  It says "Parental controls restricts access to secure websites".

 

A little hunting around turned up the following Apple Knowledge Base article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2900 that says "https note: For websites that use SSL encryption (the URL will usually begin with https), the Internet content filter is unable to examine the encrypted content of the page. For this reason, encrypted websites must be explicitly allowed using the Always Allow list. Encrypted websites that are not on the Always Allow list will be blocked by the automatic Internet content filter."

 

I understand that logic however that should NOT apply to me since I'm not trying to automatically restrict her adult web content or create allowed/blocked site lists, etc.  She has *unrestricted* web site access, so the Internet content filter shouldn't even be in play here.

 

Just to get this up and running, I did type the Admin account and password in at the prompt to let her gain access to the web pages.  However that did not work.  Even though it said it would now allow access - it did not.

 

I also tried going into Parental Controls, turning ON web site filtering, going into Custom, and adding in approved secure web sites (google, etc.)  Even *that* did not work.

 

Everything was great until 10.8.2 came along but now her account is for all intents and purposes unusable.

 

Help?  And thanks.

MacBook, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), iPod touch 2nd gen 16GB, iPad 1st gen 3G 16GB

Posted on Sep 20, 2012 11:37 PM

Close

Q: Parental Controls bug in Mountain Lion 10.8.2

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 3 of 13 last Next
  • by tereora,

    tereora tereora Sep 22, 2012 3:30 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (5 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 22, 2012 3:30 PM in response to araym

    Im not clear from the threads above

     

    Is this faulty software of incorrect logic?

     

    I believe the former, because even when I enter Administrator credentials to authorise an SSL website - that authorisation is not remembered, and I end up in a feedback loop.

     

    FWIW Apple I think you need to look at the whole user definition - it is so close and yet so far....

    Why not tie user accounts to unique apple IDs, and using iCloud infrastructure allow login on any mac/iDevice with those credentials?

    All families around the globe would rejoice as their iDevices would become ourDevices not I(my)Devices! Oh - hang on- I guess that doesn't sell more widgets though, does it....?! Actually I think that flawed marketing driven approach actually does the users a disservice.

  • by Zach Ciappara,

    Zach Ciappara Zach Ciappara Sep 22, 2012 11:20 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 22, 2012 11:20 PM in response to araym

    Do you think i should install 10.8.2 if i plan to use parental controls on it ?

  • by Zach Ciappara,

    Zach Ciappara Zach Ciappara Sep 22, 2012 11:22 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 22, 2012 11:22 PM in response to araym

    Do you think i should get this update if i plan to use parental controls on it ??

  • by chokoshi,

    chokoshi chokoshi Sep 23, 2012 1:47 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2012 1:47 AM in response to araym

    I'm having the same problem. Hey Apple, Please fix this problem ASAP.

  • by danykaffee,

    danykaffee danykaffee Sep 23, 2012 2:01 AM in response to Zach Ciappara
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2012 2:01 AM in response to Zach Ciappara

    definitely not. Stay with 10.8.1 and wait for a solution on 10.8.2 bug.

  • by benjibar,

    benjibar benjibar Sep 23, 2012 5:36 AM in response to chokoshi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2012 5:36 AM in response to chokoshi

    Come on Apple! This must be so simple to fix! Make the parental controls work properly. Thanks!

  • by quentin,

    quentin quentin Sep 23, 2012 7:30 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2012 7:30 AM in response to araym

    Parenal controls have been broken on both my daughters MB Airs since I upgraded them to Mountain Lion (10.8). Originally the issue was some sites such as Mac App Store. The TCP/IP stack would block resulting in all Internet connections failing (iMessage for example would disconnect) whilst Mac App Store was running. See this discussion

     

    jbhutchhttps://discussions.apple.com/message/19706992?ac_cid=tw123456#19706992

     

    The Mac App Store problem is fixed in 10.8.2 and is called out it the release notes. Unfortunately now you cannot connect to any https URL with parental controls enabled period. Even enabling Full Access for browsing does not work. Every site that uses SSL and every app that uses SSL except the Mac App Store does not work!

     

    I can forgive a bug in the initial release (10.8) and can even understand it not making the bar for the first point release (10.8.1) but then totally busting key functionality (from a parents POV) in the second point release (10.8.2) is plain bad. Does Apple even test this functionality! With kids back in school parents really need working parental controls.

  • by Wierdostomps,

    Wierdostomps Wierdostomps Sep 23, 2012 10:40 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 23, 2012 10:40 AM in response to araym

    Just in case Apple actually read this thread and decide to act upon it, let me add a plus one. This makes Parental Controls useless, even if we can stop the behaviour by switching them off altogether.

     

    Think I'm going to have to give OpenDNS a try - but that doesn't have the time controls I'm looking for.

  • by stevereed,

    stevereed stevereed Sep 23, 2012 4:55 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Sep 23, 2012 4:55 PM in response to araym

    I hope Apple Addresses this issue soon.

     

    I hate haveing no parental controls at all, just so my son can use his computer for school work.

  • by Chamb0790,

    Chamb0790 Chamb0790 Sep 24, 2012 3:53 AM in response to stevereed
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 24, 2012 3:53 AM in response to stevereed

    Another one here having parental control issues. I have now turned off all parental controls in both accounts but it has rendered everything useless. Despite adding the website (even though I Shouldn't need to with pc deactivated) I cannot access anything. I have just tried using google earth, bizarrely the same thing happens.

     

     

    Thoroughly unimpressed with Apple's recent upgrades.

  • by Steve.Muench,

    Steve.Muench Steve.Muench Sep 24, 2012 4:21 AM in response to Chamb0790
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 24, 2012 4:21 AM in response to Chamb0790

    I'm also having this problem after upgrading my two teenage daughters' macs to 10.8.2. I forwarded a link to this thread to a colleague who went to high school with Craig Federighi, Sr. VP of Mac OS at Apple, and asked him to please forward the email for visibility to Craig. Hope it will help get a quicker solution to this... I've also had to completely disable parental controls for the moment.

  • by freeranger69,

    freeranger69 freeranger69 Sep 24, 2012 4:36 AM in response to Steve.Muench
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 24, 2012 4:36 AM in response to Steve.Muench

    Disappointing to see that 3 days after raising this issue, the only response from Apple so far has been to remove another thread on the same topic which was critical of them.

     

    At least an acknowledgement that they are looking into it would be nice.....

  • by Chamb0790,

    Chamb0790 Chamb0790 Sep 24, 2012 5:08 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 24, 2012 5:08 AM in response to araym

    Does the problem persist for others if Parental Controls is disabled? I have done this but to know avail.

     

    If I attempt to use the search facility on Google Earth, it asks me to add the website (even though parental controls is disabled ). So I add it and it repeats the same message, rendering the app useless. And please don't suggest using Maps on the iPad instead...

     

    The web address it's asking to add is

    https://tools.google.com

  • by DaveD2X,

    DaveD2X DaveD2X Sep 24, 2012 5:24 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 24, 2012 5:24 AM in response to araym

    Must say I am very disappointed with the parental controls under 10.8.2.  Each time my son accesses a school or university secure site, the box pops up, I allow the site, and it pops up again, a never ending loop process!  Launching mail connected to a secure exchange has the same problem, the pop-up box appears and it never gets resolved even after you allowed access.

     

    What is wrong?  It was fine in 10.8.1, although youtube site was blank and access to apps was disallowed. Does Apple not test parental controls before release?

     

    I have now disabled parental controls altogether as giving him unlimited web access with parental controls does not solve the problem either.

  • by Steve.Muench,

    Steve.Muench Steve.Muench Sep 24, 2012 5:27 AM in response to Chamb0790
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 24, 2012 5:27 AM in response to Chamb0790

    I resolved the problem for the moment by having each of my daughters log into her account, and then I authenticated as the administrator and unchecked the "[  ] Enable Parental Controls" checkbox on the main panel that you see when clicking on the user account in the list. Then, after a restart (I had to restart for the change to take effect), when each of them logged into her account again, the alerts stopped appearing (but of course, the result is that there is no parental controls at all in effect).

first Previous Page 3 of 13 last Next