Kids and itunes - advice please?

[kelownagirl]

Does anyone know if there are parental controls available for itunes? My 10 year old son got an ipod for Christmas and he wants to download games and videos etc. I know there's lots of garbage available out there and I would like to be disable any ability to download explicit stuff when I'm not there.

[Mr. Bloom]

Yes, in iTunes, go to "Help/iTunes Help" search "Parental" and you'll see different levels of control available

[OakLeaf]

From iTunes Help:

>Restricting access to explicit content in the iTunes Store
You can restrict access to explicit content in the iTunes Store so that others who use your computer can't preview or buy:
Items with a Parental Advisory Label (from the Recording Industry Association of America)
Movies that don't have a specific rating (from the Motion Picture Association of America)
TV shows that don't have a specific rating (from TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board)
To change access settings, you must be an administrator of your computer.
To restrict access in the iTunes Store:
Choose iTunes > Preferences, and then click Parental.
If necessary, click the lock and type your administrator password.
Select one or more of the checkboxes in the iTunes Store section (if necessary, choose a different country from the pop-up menu).
Click the lock.
Make sure you protect your password. Anyone who knows an administrator password for your computer can change parental settings.<

That said, there's obviously a lot of places besides iTunes where he can get explicit material and no way to control that besides garden-variety supervision.

[oxysback]

Thanks for the info!

DH and I got iPod Touches for Christmas and DD got my nano. Didn't think about parental controls!

[Irulan]

for grown ups, another option to manage your iPod is Winamp. Every single member of our family absoultely HATES iTunes for one reason or another. We don't buy music via iTunes; we just need to manage music libraries. I find the interface and general usage so much easier... just a thought.

[kelownagirl]

Thanks everyone! I went in a changed the parental controls - I had forgotten they were there in the prefs. It's his computer and he could change them, if he knew about them, but since he doesn't.... We had briefly discussed the issue and so I just told him that he actually won't be able to download any adult rated shows or explicit music because he's underage. He figured it was because he had put his birthdate when he registered his computer. I'll just keep letting him think that for now. I know there's lots of other inappropriate stuff on the net that he can get into but for the most part, I am able to keep a fairly close eye on what he does. It's a bit harder with the ipod because he can download stuff and sync it and it's not so easy for me to see.

[OakLeaf]

Not that I have kids but even if it's his computer, I wouldn't let him have the administrator password. There's just too much other trouble he could get into, even if he isn't really trying to. ("What happens if I type this here?")