To make the use of children’s Internet devices more efficient and balanced, as well as better, protect them in the network environment, MacBook has developed lots of free features specifically for children and families, CyberPurify understands that parents are quite busy and don’t have much time to read each feature, so the article below will summarize for you 6 newest ways to set parental controls on Mac.
Don’t worry. It’s effective and completely free!
6 newest ways to set parental controls on Mac
Downtime – time balance in using the device
The Downtime feature allows you to set the time your child is not using the device. During Downtime, only certain apps you allow or calls will be active. This is useful if you want to restrict your kids from watching Netflix at night or just want them to not use the device at certain times.
This feature applies to all devices with the same iCloud account used for Screen Time.
You follow the steps below:
- Select the Apple menu (icon in the upper left corner)
- Select System Preferences
3. Select Screen Time.
4. Select Downtime.
5. Turn on this feature
6. Select the “Everyday” or “Custom” option and set a schedule for time away from the screen.
Limit communication while using and not using the device
In the Screen Time function on MacBook, you can set time limits for contacts during screen time and during downtime. These limits apply to calls, FaceTime, messages, and iCloud contacts.
You follow the steps below:
- Select the Apple menu (icon in the upper left corner)
- Select System Preferences
- Select Screen Time
- Select Communications in the Menu bar on the left.
5. Select the option under “During Screen Time, allow communication with”:
- Contacts only: Only allow private and group chats during screen time with people in your family member’s contacts.
- Contacts and Groups with at Least One Contact: Allow only private device-time conversations with people in your family member’s contacts and Allow group chats that include at least one person in your family member’s contacts.
- Everyone: Allows private and group chats during device time with anyone, including phone numbers your child doesn’t know.
6. Select an option under “During downtime, allow communication with”.
- Specific Contacts: Only allow private and group chats during device downtime with specific people in your child’s family member’s contacts. To specify allowed contacts, select Edit, select Add “+” or Remove “-” to modify the list.
- Contacts only: Only allow private and group conversations during device downtime with people in your family member’s contacts.
- Contacts and Groups with at Least One Contact: Only allow private conversations during device downtime with people in your family member’s contacts and allow group chats that include at least one person in the family member’s contacts.
- Everyone: Allows private and group chats during device downtime with anyone, including phone numbers your child doesn’t know.
MacBook Parental Controls for Apps Store
To set up parental controls for Apps Store, you follow the steps below:
- Select the Apple menu (icon in the upper left corner)
- Select System Preferences
- Select Screen Time
- Select Contents & Privacy in the Menu bar on the left.
- Turn on Contents & Privacy Restrictions
- Select Stores. In Ratings: Click the pop-up menu to choose a country or region to use to rate movies, TV shows, and apps.
8. Under Allowed Content, tap the pop-up menu to choose an allowed rating for movies, TV shows, and apps.
- Movies: Click the pop-up menu, there are choices like Don’t Allow Movies, 0, C13, 16+, C18, Allow all Movies, choose a rating appropriate for your child’s age.
- TV shows: Click the pop-up menu, there are choices like Don’t Allow TV Shows, 0, C13, C16, C18, Allow all TV Shows, choose a rating appropriate for your child’s age.
- Apps: Click the pop-up menu, then choose a rating that’s appropriate for your child’s age.
9. To limit your child’s access to inappropriate types of content, uncheck the boxes:
- Explicit Books with adult, pornographic content
- Explicit Music, Podcasts & News which contain adult, pornographic content
- Explicit Music videos which contain adult, pornographic content
10. You set up Require password to purchase on Store:
- Always required: A password is required for each purchase.
- Request after 15 minutes: Password required to purchase. After 15 minutes have passed, the password must be re-entered to purchase more.
Limit your child’s access to adult content
If the previous features were more concerned with access rights and time limits, this parental controls on iOS like Contents & Privacy Restrictions allows you to decide what kind of content your kids will see. Various settings restrict adult websites and search results, lyrics, and profanity in movies and music.
You follow the steps below:
- Select the Apple menu (icon in the upper left corner)
- Select System Preferences
- Select Screen Time
- Select Contents & Privacy in the Menu bar on the left.
- Turn on Contents & Privacy Restrictions
- With Web Content, you choose Limit Adult Websites to limit access to adult websites or only allow your children to access certain websites that you allow in Allowed Websites Only.
Use the online content filtering tool for all browsers
Ways to set parental controls on Mac listed above will help your kids use the Internet more safely. However, these features mainly help limit search results that are not suitable for your child’s age, and cannot protect them from harmful content that is rampant on the Internet, such as pornographic content which appears densely on sites unrelated to porn.
So your kids are at an extremely high risk of unintentionally accessing harmful content. With the limitations of technology, there is no single tool that can completely protect your children from harmful content on the Internet.
So besides educating your children about what is appropriate and inappropriate online content, to ensure your child’s online environment is safe and healthier, you should consider using an additional online content filtering tool – considered by many parents as one of the best free parental control software for mac to hide 15 types of harmful content on the Internet, including:
- Pornography
- Horrifying content like gore, accidents, ghosts, violence, murder, terrorism, etc
- Content about stimulants, addictive substances such as alcohol, beer, marijuana, drugs, etc
- Content with aggressive elements, hurting others like Hate speech
This free porn blocker extension can help to minimize your child’s access to harmful content, ensuring a healthy online environment for your child but at the same time, not invading their privacy rights.
Here is how to do it on MacBook:
- Open Safari browser
- Select Safari in the upper left corner of the screen
- Select Safari Extensions
- Click on the search box, type CyberPurify
- Select Install. Then voilà! Your device will then be automatically protected from 15 types of harmful content on the Internet.
6. After downloading, you can select the C icon on the left of the web address bar to check how much harmful content the extension has helped you block.
Apps Limit
As the name says it all, this setting allows you to control the amount of time your child spends each day on certain apps or categories of apps. This feature applies to all devices with the same iCloud account used for Screen Time.
You follow the steps below:
- Select the Apple menu (icon in the upper left corner)
- Select System Preferences
- Select App Limits
- Turn this feature on
- Click the “+” icon at the bottom left of the main taskbar.
- You will now be able to select specific apps or genres and apply a daily time limit.
Wise modern parents are always proactive in bringing the best for their children. To better protect your child from all porn sites, for all internet-connected devices your child use, you should pre-order Wifi Device, becoming the first parents to own the solution which 24/7 protects your kids from harmful websites. Best prices are always available for early birds!
We hope that parents will protect children better and more effectively online!
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