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

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Q: Parental Controls bug in Mountain Lion 10.8.2

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  • by Romelhr,

    Romelhr Romelhr Mar 22, 2013 10:07 AM in response to LizFS2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 22, 2013 10:07 AM in response to LizFS2

    Not only try fourth reset, the details are oin my post, please see my comment.

  • by Romelhr,

    Romelhr Romelhr Mar 22, 2013 10:10 AM in response to mick80234
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 22, 2013 10:10 AM in response to mick80234

    Yes, but only if  you use one method, like I details in my post.

  • by mick80234,

    mick80234 mick80234 Jun 4, 2013 7:05 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 4, 2013 7:05 AM in response to araym

    I skipped over the 10.8.2 release based off other users feedback. It is finally working correctly in 10.8.3. You can set both time limits and time of day limits.

  • by bk2013,

    bk2013 bk2013 Jul 30, 2013 3:58 PM in response to Zach Ciappara
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 30, 2013 3:58 PM in response to Zach Ciappara

    Is there any way to reach you? Your ebook, test your apple knowledge has a mistake. Also, I have some questions about how you got cover approved...

  • by minikris,

    minikris minikris Aug 8, 2013 7:38 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2013 7:38 AM in response to araym

    I have just come accross this issue and not happy. Has anyone got an update on it perhaps? Can it be fixed?

  • by mick80234,

    mick80234 mick80234 Aug 8, 2013 8:16 AM in response to minikris
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2013 8:16 AM in response to minikris

    Yes upgrade 10.3. It works in 10.8.3. I think it works in 10.8.4 but have not tested yet.

  • by minikris,

    minikris minikris Aug 8, 2013 10:00 AM in response to mick80234
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2013 10:00 AM in response to mick80234

    Mine is 10.8.4, I shall try the upgrade ta.

  • by devinhedge,

    devinhedge devinhedge Aug 8, 2013 11:07 AM in response to minikris
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2013 11:07 AM in response to minikris

    For folks with slightly older (2009-2010) this might not be an option. It doesn't look like I can upgrade. In proper Apple style, they only really support patching the current version of OSX and the previous version. For me, I'm on Leopard on one machine, Lion on another, and Mountain Lion every where else. I can't say if it was really fixed on Mountain Lion as I've seen mixed results based on what the machine administrator was trying to do. (e.g. Web Filtering vs. Application Access to network interfaces vs. time quotas, etc.) I honestly gave up and used an alternative approach. I use time quotas successfully on all versions; I use OpenDNS for content filtering; I use Intego's Family Protector bundle for app auditing and intrusion protection; I Apple's application controls to keep the kids from using certain apps (personal financial software); and I have everyone set up with their own account. Oh... and I have a wifi router that that emails me a daily log.

  • by PleaseLetMeGetAUsernameThatIsAvailableSInceAllUsernamesSayAvailableButLaterSayAlreadyTaken,

    PleaseLetMeGetAUsernameThatIsAvailableSInceAllUsernamesSayAvailableButLaterSayAlreadyTaken PleaseLetMeGetAUsernameThatIsAvailableSInceAllUsernamesSayAvailableButLaterSayAlreadyTaken Sep 14, 2013 1:55 PM in response to mick80234
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 14, 2013 1:55 PM in response to mick80234

    I've been experiencing the same problem with my son's account on the mac.  He is a good kid, abd I pray that I am not doing something that will affect him, but I am going to remove parental controls.  This is completely ridiculous - what a wasted feature.

     

    Mac is completely slipping in quality, it is like what happened to intuit in the late 90s early 2000/s, Software getting too complex, people not as smart - trying to grow too much, being driven by Wall Street and not original vision of "it just works."

     

    Bad software plain and simple.  I mean... really... look at my username... LOL... the discussions don't even work, Each time I picked a username, the system would tell me that username was available, then I would click submit and it would tell me the username was already taken ... huh? Really?

     

    Bad software - all around.  I have a MacBookPro that I have win8 on bootcamp - much preferred.  I wanted to like Mac, but can't get the vibe.

  • by fluffylucy,

    fluffylucy fluffylucy Jan 15, 2014 5:48 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jan 15, 2014 5:48 PM in response to araym

    I have never used parental controls before but my 13 year old sold his computer and needs to use mine for some online classes. He likes to fiddle with settings so I set him up with with a restricted acount so that he didn't inadvertently mess with my machine. His mum is a big fan of controls too, so everything was good, untill a recent upgrade to 10.8.5. Safari now blocks the course website but no message appears. Instead, safari just freezes in fetch mode. Chrome allows connection but freezes from time to time. I had the computer set to allow unrestricted web access so the only thing I lose by removing parental controls, is a log of his web activity but I will have to live with it. Parental controls now make web use pretty much impossible, exept in an extremely limited sense. As there were no messages at all, it took me a while to work all this out and I am annoyed at Apple for being so cavalier in it's attitude to users' experiences. I suppose that I will change to Maverics one day and revisit the issue if I can be bothered.

  • by kevinstylus,

    kevinstylus kevinstylus Feb 14, 2014 7:40 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 14, 2014 7:40 AM in response to araym

    Has anyone found a workaround for this problem yet? I bought an iMac to show my daughter how much nicer a mac is to use rather than a Windows 8 PC, well that idea backfired, as the iMac is just seen as 'the annoying computer' by her now. The https/Parental Controls thing needs fixing - Apple you're losing fans fast and not getting any new ones while this problem persists.

  • by Bens242,

    Bens242 Bens242 Mar 2, 2014 12:21 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 2, 2014 12:21 PM in response to araym

    Running OS X Mavericks, still no fix. Any help?

  • by ZManCO,

    ZManCO ZManCO Mar 8, 2014 2:19 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 8, 2014 2:19 PM in response to araym

    I'm having the issue with Mavericks (10.9.1).  Found this on a cnet site (http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57523360-263/fixing-parental-controls-probl em-in-os-x-10.8.2/) and it appears to work:

     

    1. log in to an administrator account

    2. go to the Macintosh HD/Library/Managed Preferences/ folder

    3. open the folder for the managed user with the problem

    4. removed the "com.apple.familycontrols.contentfilter.plist" file (I put a copy on the desktop, deleted the copy in this folder, in case this did not work)

    5. log out of admin account

    6. log back in to the restricted account

     

    Problem (so far) appears to be gone.

  • by liquidcable,

    liquidcable liquidcable Jun 6, 2014 5:34 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2014 5:34 PM in response to araym

    Still broken in 10.9.3.

  • by manishjain99,

    manishjain99 manishjain99 Aug 8, 2014 6:37 PM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2014 6:37 PM in response to araym

    Do we have any response from apple about when the plan to fix this?

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