Time Limits broken in 10.5.7? -- Parental Controls

Question

Time Limits broken in 10.5.7? -- Parental Controls

My daughter can use the computer for 2 hours on weekdays (between reasonable hours).
However, since 10.5.6 and now 10.5.7, she is getting away with about 4 hours a day.

I did a "last" command from terminal today and when added up it was almost 4.5 hours.
She is never warned or kicked off. This is a huge issue for us. Is this a known problem or is there a way to reset time limits to make them work!

PS I do notice that she reboots a lot between sessions. Is this somehow resetting the clock?

MacBook White 2009, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on May 26, 2009 10:15 PM

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Answer 1

May 31, 2009 9:29 PM in response to Ian H Stewart

I've got two macs for my two sons and they are both having problems since update. On one of the machines (mac mini) I'm seeing a problem similar to what you have (if not exactly the same) and on the other I've got a weird problem with adding time. If the child runs out of time, it is now impossible to successfully add time. When I go to add time it looks like it's going to work OK, but then the user gets kicked out back to the login screen. The really bad thing is that if I try to login with the parent account (the admin account) it looks like it's going to work, but then as soon as the desktop appears I get booted back to the login window! This cycle is impossible to break, except by rebooting the machine! Way to go apple! Prior to the update, parental controls had weird problems, now it's got REALLY weird problems. I'm just hopping they've got this sorted out by the next OS, but by that time my kids will problem be grown up.

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Answer 2

paulsp

Level 1

0 points

Jun 7, 2009 2:04 PM in response to javajuggler

I am seeing the same problem javajuggler described on the iMac my kid have been using for a couple of years. With time limits enabled, the session will logout after a minute or so for ALL accounts. This was not a problem prior to 10.5.7, including 10.5.6.

In short time limits are un-useable for me in 10.5.7

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Answer 3

Jun 14, 2009 5:29 AM in response to Ian H Stewart

Yes. Time limits seem to be broken in 10.5.7
Was wondering why it was so quiet this morning!
Regards
Christoph

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Answer 4

truk1

Level 1

4 points

Jul 19, 2009 7:16 AM in response to ctheisinger

Yes, I have the same problem. , Safari v4.02.

Parental control rarely 'enforces' the set time limits and it basically does nothing to block myspace.

I notice that when the lid on the Macbook being used, is closed rather than shut down, or logged out, the access comes back

truk1

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Answer 5

Jul 21, 2009 11:01 AM in response to Ian H Stewart

I have the "opposite" problem--no account is able to log in or to switch back in if all of the child time limits have been reached until the computer is restarted. Any attempt to do so (even for admin accounts) results in a quick switch back to the login screen, although the user is still logged in. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Lou

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Answer 6

Oct 15, 2009 4:51 PM in response to Lou Casagrande

Did you figure out how to fix it? Maybe I'll just reload 10.5 and just got to .5. Has anybody tried to do this? Has anyone figured anything else out? I really miss the "old way". I've got 4 kids and each gets (or doesn't get) a varied amount of time on the computer. It was SO nice that they couldn't get on to the computer unless my husband or I was around to allow it and we could set a time limit where they'd get shut out (no forgetting to set the kitchen timer). HELP! It's funny, I called apple support and went to the genius bar thinking that my computer was breaking down. Non e of them even had the slightest idea of what to do. I'm glad to know that others have had the same problem. Has anyone who has had problems get the new "Snow Leopard"? Was this issue corrected? Thanks!!

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