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 bigfoot1515,

    bigfoot1515 bigfoot1515 Nov 6, 2014 7:55 AM in response to liquidcable
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 6, 2014 7:55 AM in response to liquidcable

    Error: Parental Controls web filtering

    When enabling web restrictions in Parental Controls and choosing the radio button for Allow unrestricted access to websites, the account still applies the web restrictions.

    1. Login to the admin account and open a web browser.

    2. For 10.8, download the Workgroup manager at http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1567.

    3. For 10.9, download the Workgroup manager at http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1698

    4. Install the workgroup manager for your specified OS.

    5. From the desktop, click on Go, Applications, Workgroup Manager.

    6. For the address type in localhost, username is admin username, password is admin password.

    7. Click on Connect.

    8. Click on ok to the warning, You are working in a directory node that is not visible to the network.

    9. On the left hand side, you should see a list of user accounts.

    10. Select the account that you wish to change the web restrictions on, then choose the Preferences button located in the upper right corner.

    11. Click on ok to the warning, You are working in a directory node that is not visible to the network.

    12. Click on the Details tab next to Overview.

    13. Double click on  com.apple.familycontrols.contentfilter

    14. Click on the arrow next to Always

    15. You should now have two items that are showing, restrictweb and useContentFilter. They both should be set to true.

    16. Click on the up/down arrow on the far right side for restrictweb and set it to false.

    17. Click on the up/down arrow on the far right side for useContentFilter and set it to false

    18. Click on Apply Now in the lower right hand corner.

    19. Click on Done.

    20. Close Workgroup Manager and reboot/log off.

    21. Log-in to account that you with the Parental controls.

    22. You should now be able to access websites without warning messages and any SSL based websites.

  • by brycenesbitt,

    brycenesbitt brycenesbitt Nov 23, 2014 12:24 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 23, 2014 12:24 AM in response to araym

    This bug is still with us as of Yosemite.  With more and more sites going https after the Snowden revelations, this issue gets more and more serious.

  • by theresafromedgewater,

    theresafromedgewater theresafromedgewater Jan 1, 2015 8:29 AM in response to brycenesbitt
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 1, 2015 8:29 AM in response to brycenesbitt

    Apple now is saying this is a feature not a bug... They document this 'feature' of parental controls here: Mac OS X v10.5, 10.6: About the Parental Controls Internet content filter - Apple Support.  Note that it is still true in 10.10.

     

    Apple deliberately blocks all secure websites if you have Parental Controls turned on.  You don't have any option to change that unfortunately.  It's their way of playing Big Brother.   And conveniently (for Apple) prevents you from effectively using yahoo mail or gmail or installing and using Google Chrome since these refer back to a long list of secure IP addresses for web components. 

     

    Do any of the work arounds above still work in 10.10?  If not, what other web filtering software have people installed.  I am thinking of keeping Parental Controls on but allowing all websites and using another software to filter websites.  I have FIOS and use their router/firewall so I don't really administer the network currently.  And anything I block there would block it for everyone which isn't ideal.

  • by Tomek.O,

    Tomek.O Tomek.O Jan 30, 2015 12:32 AM in response to Noodle05
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 30, 2015 12:32 AM in response to Noodle05

    The problem still exists in 10.10.2...
    I was sure Apple had solved this bug... Unfortunately not...

     

    I have created new account with parental control. Log there and switch on Firefox. The first page is https://www.google.com and it is blocked. So browsing Internet is really very secure, because children cannot browse at all... :-(

     

    How we can solve it?

  • by Tomek.O,

    Tomek.O Tomek.O Jan 30, 2015 12:33 AM in response to theresafromedgewater
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 30, 2015 12:33 AM in response to theresafromedgewater

    a feature?... Good joke.. really good.

  • by Tomek.O,

    Tomek.O Tomek.O Jan 30, 2015 12:37 AM in response to bigfoot1515
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 30, 2015 12:37 AM in response to bigfoot1515

    Is the Workgroup Manager available for 10.10?

  • by vsguevara,

    vsguevara vsguevara Oct 26, 2015 5:23 AM in response to araym
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2015 5:23 AM in response to araym

    I am on Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 using Safari browser a iCloud. Suddenly my window is persistently being block by Parental Control; I am 65 and do not need parental control, can't even use the Skype everything is prohibited! It also refuses my password it wants the Admins password and I am going crazy about this! Then appears an offer to repair my Mac; I don't need an engineer!

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