What Do You Do To A Mac To Protect Your Kids?

Encore Review: As parents, Carol and I are concerned about what internet sites our children view when online.

Are Mac tools capable of protecting your child’s online experience? What problems have you had?

It wasn’t that long ago when I wrote about the Mac browser, BumperCar; a good, protective browser for children.

As much as we devote time to educating our children to online problems, we can’t be watching their every click and page view.

Or, can we? What can we do to protect our children, yet give them freedom to explore the benefits of using a Mac?

In Carol’s never ending search to maintain mommyhood while our children rapidly outgrow shoes, pants, and tops, she found yet another Mac goodie.

This one is called Mac Minder, from Luma Code. Simply put, Mac Minder is a parental control system for Mac OS X.

We’ve looked at Mac Minder before, but the latest version has a few more attractive features that bring it to Mac360 for a closer look.

Whether you’re a household that has a Mac your children share, or they have their own Macs, Mac Minder makes minding the Macs easier.

New in the latest version is Remote Administration which lets you set limits and options for your users from another Mac.

Mac Minder lets you set up user schedules for specific Mac applications.

All others get blocked out and can’t be used.

When your child attempts to use a Mac application longer or past the designated time, a pop up messages hits the screen—with your personalized message.

Mac Minder will let you check, via the remote interface, what’s happening on your child’s (or students) Mac in real time.

Yes, you can spy on your kid’s Mac usage while they’re using the Mac.

Scheduling specific usage is easy and graphical. Click to block out or open the times during a day (similar to iCal), then select which Mac applications can or cannot be used.

Just as cool for a Parental Administrator, is Mac Minder’s Usage Log. Yep, you guess it. The log shows the dates, the Mac applications, the percent and actual time for each user.

Preferences are straightforward, and include a Master Password that’s different than the administrator password on the Mac.

If your family has a Mac and your children use it, Mac Minder is a decent way to protect them from using specific applications beyond a certain time, or just limit them from use.

Combined with the BumperCar browser, and the security centric products from Intego, your children will be safer when using the Mac.

On the other hand, add up the price tag of all the security products, and you’ll be out a few hundred dollars. What’s the value of security?

What security tools do you use on your family or children’s Mac? What problems have you run into when allowing children to use a Mac online?