i need to put parental controls on my daughter's MacBook Air (OS X Yosemite version 10.10.1) but she is the computer's administrator. I have her passwords. Help please. Thanks!
MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite version 10.10.1
If she is an admin user then you cannot impose parental controls. Her account must be a Managed Account and you must have the admin account. She cannot ever be able to know your password, and you should use a strong password that is both long and not guessable.
What you can do is log into her account from which you can setup an admin user account for yourself in Users & Groups preferences. Log out of her account and log into your new account. From your account change her account from an Admin to a Managed Account. You can then set up Parental Controls for her account. This will not affect her files. Depending upon how you configure the controls you can lock her out of System Preferences so she cannot create her own accounts nor access your account to make changes.
Once she learns what you have done she will not be a happy camper, and she will probably change her passwords if she can. If you use a weak password for your admin account, then she will endeavor to crack it. Use a password with uc, lc, letters, numbers, and certain punctuation. Avoid repetition and stringing words together. You should use a minimum of 31 characters. Be sure you write it down, but hide it where she cannot find it or get to it. Trust me, she will try. The best passwords are created by random generators such as Randhouse 3.7.0, Password Factory 1.4, and PasswordVault Lite 8.2.5. The longer and more complex the password the harder it will be to crack. She has geeky friends in school with surprising skills that she will ask to help her. All you can do is to keep as many of the doors closed as you can in order to make her job to hard to maintain.
I would look for some advice on this type of issue using the web. You aren't the only parent to deal with this. Many have come before you. 😁
If she is an admin user then you cannot impose parental controls. Her account must be a Managed Account and you must have the admin account. She cannot ever be able to know your password, and you should use a strong password that is both long and not guessable.
What you can do is log into her account from which you can setup an admin user account for yourself in Users & Groups preferences. Log out of her account and log into your new account. From your account change her account from an Admin to a Managed Account. You can then set up Parental Controls for her account. This will not affect her files. Depending upon how you configure the controls you can lock her out of System Preferences so she cannot create her own accounts nor access your account to make changes.
Once she learns what you have done she will not be a happy camper, and she will probably change her passwords if she can. If you use a weak password for your admin account, then she will endeavor to crack it. Use a password with uc, lc, letters, numbers, and certain punctuation. Avoid repetition and stringing words together. You should use a minimum of 31 characters. Be sure you write it down, but hide it where she cannot find it or get to it. Trust me, she will try. The best passwords are created by random generators such as Randhouse 3.7.0, Password Factory 1.4, and PasswordVault Lite 8.2.5. The longer and more complex the password the harder it will be to crack. She has geeky friends in school with surprising skills that she will ask to help her. All you can do is to keep as many of the doors closed as you can in order to make her job to hard to maintain.
I would look for some advice on this type of issue using the web. You aren't the only parent to deal with this. Many have come before you. 😁
This was VERY helpful. Thank you!
Now I have myself as administrator and my daughter is set up with a managed account. I set up some parental controls. However, now I have this problem: When I log into her account, Finder boxes are popping up that say, "You don't have permission to use the application "uHD-UninstallAgent" or "You don't have permission to use the application "uHD-LogRotator". It also says to "contact the person who set up your account". The options to click on are: "Always Allow...," "Allow Once..." or "OK..." I click on "ok" but the message just keeps popping back up and won't go away. Any suggestions?
Also, Google Chrome is something she uses frequently so I allowed that website. Now a Parental Controls box pops up that says "Google Chrome attempted to access these secure websites" and then it lists several https//: addresses with numbers (i.e. https://74.125.228.87). "Parental controls restricts access to secure websites. To add these websites to your approved list, click add selected websites. To do this, you need an administrator password." The options to click on are: "Add Selected Websites "or "OK". I do not want to restrict her access to websites she may need for school, but I don't know what those listed websites are with numbers alone so I am reluctant to grant permission. UGH!
Yes, it will be a mess until you get things configured because she has been the admin, so all these things did not need new settings. You will need to configure separately what applications she can use as well as website she can access, etc. I'm afraid you will have to visit those websites to find out what they are because you won't know based on an IP address. Sites with the "https" are secure sites. Unsecure sites do not have the "s".
I'm afraid I don't know what uHD-UninstallAgent or uHD-LogRotator are, but they don't appear to be OS X components. I guess you will have to do some research using Google. I don't know what she has installed on the computer, and whatever she did install you will need to find out what it's for. She may have installed anti-malware software which may not be needed and could be uninstalled.
The two items above are apparently from something called Blue Stacks. It's an Android emulator. Maybe that is a clue for you. I don't know why she might want it on the computer. Maybe she just wants to be able to use Android apps but doesn't have an Android phone. Because these are not known apps for the managed account you will need to provide permission to use it now that she no longer is an admin user. The messages keep returning because you have not selected one of the Allow options. Allowing always will make the requests stop, but gives her unlimited access to that item. Once means she can use it this one time, but you will have to allow it every time she wants to use it. OK just makes the alert go away but does nothing.
This sort of ends my knowledge of parental controls, but you can learn more with a little research. Here are a few links to start:
How to Use Mac Parental Controls - For Dummies
Set Up Parental Controls on Your Mac
Kid Proofing a Mac With Parental Controls — Tech News and Analysis
iTunes- Using Parental Controls
Thanks for your help and thank you for the additional links!
I need to put parental controls on my daughter's MacBook Air (OS X Yosemite 10.10.1) but she is the administrator? I know her passwords. Help...thanks!
