parental control problems - Mac OS X

[Scott Rossi]

Recently, Chris Sheffield wrote:

> I'm wondering if anyone has run into this problem and, if so, what the
> possible fix would be. We have several customers (schools) reporting a problem
> with our Rev-built application when trying to implement parental controls on
> managed student accounts. Here's what's happening. When installing the
> application under an admin account (we're using a Vise X installer) everything
> appears to work as expected. The admin can launch the app and everything works
> fine. Then the admin grants access to our app, via parental controls, to the
> managed student account. After logging in with the student account, attempting
> to launch the app results in the infamous bouncing icon in the dock but then
> the app shuts down problem. What's even stranger, though, is that after
> attempting this and then logging back in with the admin account and attempting
> to run the app again, it doesn't work for the admin anymore. So it's like by
> attempting to run the app with a managed account, it is breaking something
> system wide. The only recourse at that point is to uninstall and reinstall.

Hi Chris:

I don't know if this will work for Rev apps or not, but I have fought for
years with Parental Controls on kids' machines and have done the following
to get apps to launch.  Apologies if any of this is basic knowledge for you.

1) As admin under System Preferences, look in the user's account and see if
applications are enabled on an item-by-item basis.  If yes, the checkbox for
your app needs to be enabled.

2) After installing an application as admin, I would get info on the app's
folder bundle (bundle folder?) and change the "You can:" pulldown under
Ownership and Permissions to read/write.  I don't know if this is acceptable
in your situation, but it solved every problem install I had with Parental
Controls and I now do this out of habit.

I do the above on a couple of old eMac systems running (I believe) OS X 10.4
or thereabouts.  I'm not sure if Parental Controls on more recent versions
of the OS works better, or is more intelligent.

Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, UX Design