Parental Controls CPU 100%

I'm having this issue as well. Just upgraded from Tiger to 10.5.1 on 24" iMac Intel (white, not alum)

parentalcontrolsd is using 100% cpu all the time. No issue with screensaver, but the process is just out of control.

bash-3.2# ps axwvu | more
PID STAT TIME SL RE PAGEIN VSZ RSS LIM TSIZ %CPU %MEM USER TT STARTED COMMAND
39 Rs 466:25.41 0 0 0 93052 6828 - 0 100.0 0.2 root ?? 8:06AM /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/FamilyControl
s.framework/Resources/parentalcontrolsd
(shows cpu at 100.0% for parentalcontrolsd, in case it doesn't line up upon viewing)

I'm also getting this periodically in system.log, not sure if it's related:
Dec 13 14:27:10 fembot kernel[0]: PM notification timeout (pid 39, parentalcontrols)
Dec 13 14:29:16 fembot kernel[0]: PM notification timeout (pid 39, parentalcontrols)

That's all I can see that may be related.

Message was edited by: al_broccoli

parentalcontrolsd has had 99-107% of resources on my machine since I started using parental controls.

I have posted on this in several locations around the web. The only apparent fix is to remove (yes, I said remove) parental controls or perform an archive and install or clean install. I originally performed an upgrade to Leopard but I am now contemplating the above. I am curious as to why Apple gave us the "Enable Parental Controls" button but there is no "Disable" button. What the...????

parental controls can be easily disabled, but that is not an acceptable solution for me.

to disable parental controls, click on a child's name, then click on the gear icon at the bottom left, and select "disable parental controls for ". Do this for each child, and reboot the machine and the parental controls daemon will not restart.

Just installed 10.5.2 and am also still having the same problem. Any ideas how to fix this?

I did an archive and install and preserved the account settings, and it seems to have resolved my problems with CPU usage, random crashing, and freezing when logging out of accounts. That's my solution and it works for me.

I have been testing different scenarios and have been able to keep this from occurring under 10.5.2. Let me start by saying that I have had these issues happen on my Mac Mini.

Everytime I have enabled "Use Simple Finder" AND "Only allow selected applications" TOGETHER has resulted in the parentalcontrols process to run away. Everytime I have disabled these two settings and kept all the other Parental Control settings as I had it before, the parentalcontrols process has NOT consumed all the CPU cycles.

Give this a try and see if this helps. What helps is to have the Activity monitor open while doing this. Disable all Parental Controls first, Force Quite the parentalconcrols process, then re-enable the Parental Control on the accounts you need, keeping away from setting both "Use Simple Finder" and "Only allow selected applications" together.

Also I read somewhere that disabling fast user switching would help. I have kept my fast user switching turned ON.

Hope this helps.

When I had my problem, I originally had Fast User Switching, and "Only selected Applications", but I was not using simple finder. However, since my reinstall of the system, I am using the same as before, but the cpu is under control.

10.5.2 fixed the cpu issue for me. Still using fast user switching, but cpu is back to normal.

Woohoo!!! 🙂

Thanks for the workaround -- it was troubling me, too.

I filled out an official bug request with Apple on this issue (Bug ID# 5771103).

-- TG

I had this problem the last two weeks as well. My solution - but only if you're the "only" user on your mac - is to delete all other user accounts....done. Otherwise you can disable the parental control...I guess...if you have other people using your computer

I didn't even realize in the beginning that there was something wrong. I thought my battery was already disfunctional. Then I realized the cooling ventilator was almost always running. So I tried to set it back. Still the fan was running on full speed (and I felt like having a stone-age notebook). Suddenly I thought I could look at my CPU ..... and here I found the problem.....quite annoying, especially because I have no idea why this should use so much CPU....

I was just at the Genius Bar this morning because I thought that my 1 month old MacBook needed a new battery. Turns out is was this issue with Parental Controls as well. At least that's what they say. Any word on getting this fixed?