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I have a Parental Controls limit on my child so I have to type in my password when they open a new application. I have recently discovered a problem though. They have tried programming in terminal. The problem is that the Mac thinks of each command as an application, so if they want to use a new command, I have to allow it. Is there a way to allow all of the commands, but not the actual applications?

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Each command truly is a new application so it will involve a bit of work to white list them all using the parental tools. – bmike♦ Feb 28 '12 at 19:52

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Well, allowing all commands would probably allow your child to bypass some or all of the other Parental Controls on the system. Perhaps a simple Linux Virtual Machine without networking capabilities would suit your purposes better? Your child wouldn't be able to bypass any settings on the host machine and if they break the VM, it's trivial to fix/reinstall.

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This is an excellent suggestion to work around the core problem - terminal can get past most of the restrictions with enough knowledge or by downloading another copy of the apps that are not white listed. – bmike♦ Feb 28 '12 at 19:50

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