If you have little ones in your home that are finger happy with the keyboard, Mac OS X Snow Leopard has got your back. While it won't watch the kids while you go out for date night, you can use the built-in Parental Controls to finely tweak the Mac App Store so that the kids don't do anything fishy.
First, you’ll need to open System Preferences (Apple menu > System Preferences) and navigate to Parental Controls. Once there, click on the account you want to protect (you may need to authenticate yourself as an administrator using the small lock in the lower left-hand corner).
If this is the first time you’re using Parental Controls on an account, you may need to click the “Enable Parental Controls” button.
Under the Apps tab in Parental Controls, there will be a button labeled “Limit Applications.” Click this to begin limiting app store access.
In the Allow App Store Apps drop-down menu, you can select which apps will be available by age, or disable the App Store completely. The options here are as follows:
- All - enables access to all App Store apps
- Don’t allow - disables access to the App Store
- Up to 4/9/12/17+ - enables access based on app age restrictions enforced by Apple. Selecting one of these options will ensure that only age-appropriate apps are displayed when browsing the store.
You'll also be able to tweak to the Allowed Apps section, which displays all the apps installed on your Mac and gives you fine grain control over which apps can be launched on the kids account. Any unchecked applications will not be able to launch in the selected account. In addition, the age restrictions are displayed to the right of the app name.
Now, whenever the user with parental controls tries to access blocked apps, they'll be met with a pop-up that states they don’t have access to that application. If the user clicks "Always Allow" or "Allow Once", they'll need administrative access to get through.
If, as the administrator, you allowed App Store access and have an age limit set on the user's app settings, they will be unable to download (or install) any app from the App Store that is above the set age limit. If you want to limit how much someone can spend in the App Store, however, you may consider looking to the iTunes Store Allowances or iTunes gift cards.
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