How To Set Up Parental Control for Safari

Safari is the internet browser that comes with all Apple computers, and it possesses some built-in parental control features to help protect your children online. For these to work, you must first create a user profile for your child on the Apple device, then adjust the system settings to apply to Safari.

NOTE: These instructions apply to Mac computers using Sierra OS. Menu options may vary slightly, but generally the instructions should be similar for other Mac OS versions.

How to Create a User Profile for Your Child on an Apple Computer

  1. Log in to your administrator account on the device.
  2. Click System Preferences.
  3. Next, click Users and Groups.
  4. Click the lock icon in order to begin making changes. Enter your password when prompted.
  5. Click the + button below the list of users to add a new user.
  6. In the New Account drop-down menu, choose Managed with Parental Control.
  7. Choose the Age:
    1. 4+
    2. 9+
    3. 12+
    4. 17+
  8. Add the full name of your child.
  9. Next, enter an account name.
  10. Enter a password.
  11. Create a password hint in case your child forgets the password. (If it is forgotten, you can log in to your administrator account and reset the password).
  12. Click Create user.
  13. When finished, click the lock icon again to prevent further changes.

How to Set Parental Controls for Safari

  1. Click System Preferences.
  2. Click Parental Controls.
  3. Click the lock icon to make changes. Enter your password when prompted.
  4. Select the user account whose parental controls you want to manage.
  5. Click Enable Parental Controls.
  6. Click Web. While you can use this interface to implement parental controls for the entire computer, since this focuses on the Safari browser, we’ll ignore the other tabs and options.
  7. Choose one of the following options:
    • Allow unrestricted access to websites
    • Try to limit access to adult websites. You can click the Customize button to add a list of sites to always allow, and a list of sites to never allow.
    • Allow access only to these websites. There are a number of websites in this list, including Bing, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others. Click the + to add another site to the list. Click a site in the list and then the - button to remove a site from the list.
  8. When finished, click the lock icon to prevent additional changes.


How to Monitor Content

In addition to setting parental controls on your child's device, the next safety layer parents and caregivers should strongly consider is a monitoring solution to assess the content their kids encounter (and produce) across text messages, social media, and email. Bark can do this for you. 

Bark - The Internet Safety Solution

Bark is dedicated to helping keep kids safe online and in real life. In 2018, we helped protect nearly 3 million kids with our groundbreaking products for families and schools.

By monitoring text messages, YouTube, emails, and 24+ different social networks for potential safety concerns like cyberbullying, self-harm, violence, sexual predators, and more, Bark allows busy parents to rest easier knowing their kids are better protected from digital dangers. Sign up today to start your free, one-week trial or visit Bark.us to learn more.