iTunes: Using Parental Controls

For example, you can restrict explicit content from displaying in the iTunes Store. You can also disable podcasts, radio content, the iTunes Store, and shared music so that these items don't appear in the Source pane.

iTunes 6 Parental Controls

iTunes 7 offers the ability to restrict movies and TV shows to a specific rating level in the Parental Controls. To gain access to these features you need to be running iTunes 7 or later.

iTunes 7 Parental Controls

Note: Parental Controls will need to be configured for each user account you want to have limited access.

Setting Parental Controls

To set parental controls on your computer, follow these steps:

1. In iTunes, open iTunes preferences. Mac users: From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences. Windows users: On the Edit menu, click Preferences.
2. Click the Parental tab.
3. Select the checkbox next to any item you wish to disable or restrict.
4. iTunes 7 or later only: To change a rating level of TV Shows or Movies choose a rating level from the pop-up menu.
5. Click the lock icon to prevent users from making changes.
6. Type your administrator password in the resulting dialog, then click OK (You'll need to know the administrator's account name and password).
7. Click OK to close iTunes preferences and have your changes take effect.

If you want to make changes to your restrictions, open iTunes preferences, click the Parental tab, click the lock icon, and enter your administrator password in the resulting dialog to unlock the parental controls. You can then make any desired changes.

Important: Windows 2000 and Mac OS X versions earlier than Mac OS X 10.3 do not support the locking feature in iTunes parental controls.