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Disable the popup stating parental controls blocked the following sites

  • 6 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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ON OS X 10.9 with parental controls enabled when a site is blocked Firefox throws up a popup stating what sites were blocked. I would like to stop this from happening, as in our environment we bloc Facebook, twitter, and other sites, so when I go to CNN firefox pops up saying a bunch of sites have been blocked and to try allow them. This popup is awful and needs to be removed...

ON OS X 10.9 with parental controls enabled when a site is blocked Firefox throws up a popup stating what sites were blocked. I would like to stop this from happening, as in our environment we bloc Facebook, twitter, and other sites, so when I go to CNN firefox pops up saying a bunch of sites have been blocked and to try allow them. This popup is awful and needs to be removed...

All Replies (6)

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I haven't used this feature...

Is there an add-on in Firefox that you can configure? You can check on the Add-ons page. Either:

  • Command+Shift+a
  • "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Extensions.

If there is an extension related to this function: check for an Options button to see whether you can set it to silent operation.

Next, in the left column, click Plugins.

If there is a plugin related to this function: you could try setting it to "Never Activate" although this might completely disable the feature... Usually configuration for a plugin is done externally to Firefox.


If there are no add-ons related to this feature, check whether you can modify the behavior in the parental control software itself.

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So after doing a bit more research this does not appear to be a Firefox pop up box but rather a Parental Controls pop up box. However while testing this on safari the box does not pop up. Firefox must be reporting this somehow to parental controls. Is there anyway to prevent this from happening?

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That looks like a pop-up for the Parental Control and not from Firefox, so you need to check the settings in that software.

Don't you see this with other browsers?

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As I just posted I know this is a "Parental Controls" pop up and not a Firefox pop up, however, I only see this pop up while using Firefox, while using safari there is no pop up. I assume ( and we all know what assume spells ) that Firefox is sending this data to parental controls. I have not tested google chrome yet, but in my environment we only use Firefox and Safari. While using Safari there is no pop up while browsing, when using Firefox any site blocked shows up in that infernal pop up. So when a user goes to cnn.com they can cnn.com however the parental controls block any facebook or twitter links and so then they show up in that pop up, but they do not in Safari.

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Maybe Safari has some special integration that Firefox doesn't have? Or maybe Safari is actually bypassing the filter for those sites?

According to the following old article, the filter blocks all secure sites that are not pre-approved. Probably the filter can't see inside secure connections (because they are encrypted) so out of an abundance of caution, it just blocks them. Not sure if any of the fixes actually allow you to keep using Parental Controls...

Fixing Parental Controls problem in OS X 10.8.2 - CNET

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Does it have any effect what the status is of the user (normal or administrator)?

I would assume that you might see this dialog if you have privileges to modify this list.