How to Set Parental Controls in iTunes

Parental controls give you peace of mind when your son or daughter shops at the iTunes Store. iTunes not only provides a Parental Advisory Label next to explicit items in the online store but also lets you restrict explicit content from displaying in the iTunes Store. You can also disable podcasts, radio content, the iTunes Store itself, and shared music so that these items don’t appear in the Source pane.

1. Choose iTunes→Preferences on the Mac or Edit→Preferences in Windows.

   In the Preferences window that appears, click the Parental tab to see the Parental Control preferences.

2. Click the options to disable podcasts, radio stations, the iTunes Store, and shared libraries so that these sources of content don’t appear in the iTunes Source pane.

3. To restrict content itself, you can choose a rating system for a specific country in the Ratings For pop-up menu, and then click options to restrict movies and TV shows using the chosen country’s rating levels, available in pop-up menus.

   You can also click the option to restrict all explicit content.

4. After selecting options, click the Lock icon to prevent further changes.

   iTunes displays a dialog requiring you to type the administrator password for your computer system. Click OK after typing the password, and then click OK again to close iTunes preferences so that the changes take effect.

To make changes later, click the Lock icon to unlock the preferences, and type this administrator password again.