How to View Children's Activity on a Mac

Screenshot of Parental Control activity logs

With the latest release of Apple's Mac OS X operating system, also known as Leopard, parents are given the opportunity to control certain aspects of a child's computer account. One of these options is the ability to monitor a child's activities on the computer, including what programs she uses and what websites she visits. This information is stored in a log file that is only accessible to users with administrative accounts.

Things You'll Need

• Mac running OS X 10.5 or later

Instructions

1. Log on to your computer with an administrator account.

2. Open "System Preferences" by clicking on the icon in the dock.

3. Go to the "Parental Controls" control panel underneath the "System" heading.

4. Click on the lock in the lower-left corner of the screen and enter your administrative username and password.

5. Select the account you wish to monitor from the list on the left side of the control panel window.

6. Go to the "Logs" tab at the top of the window. The control panel will now display all of the websites and applications that the account has accessed within the last week.