Does Screen Time web page limits work on a Mac with Chrome or Edge?

May 8, 2023 12:20 AM

I'm trying to use Screen Time to limit my kid to 1 hour of a certain website on his MacBook (Big Sur). This website only works in Chrome or Edge, not Safari. According to the Screen Time data on my MacBook (Ventura), there's no usage of that website on his computer, which isn't the case. How can I get screen time to limit access to this one website by time? Does Chrome or Edge not work with Screen Time web page blocking? Does this require a newer version of Mac OS?

Most of the articles I've seen on this are about iPads, which isn't quite relevant.

posted by Mushroom12345 to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: No. Screen Time on a Mac only monitors Safari, it ignores other browsers. If you have to use Chrome or Edge then Screen Time won't work. It doesn't matter what version of MacOS you are on.

An alternative that works with any browser is Cold Turkey. It's not as user friendly but it's rock solid and the blocking works well. The developer is responsive to support questions if you need help.

Another alternative is Freedom. It's more user friendly but it only does blocking by time of day, not by cumulative usage like Screen Time. It's also quite easy to circumvent , if that's a concern.
posted by riddley at 3:39 AM on May 8, 2023

Best answer: It's not so much that Screen Time doesn't work with Chrome. It's that Chrome needs to be updated to work with Screen Time. You can indeed include Chrome in Screen Time monitoring if you enable this feature in Chrome.

Quick caveat: You'll be tinkering in a part of Chrome that gives you access to extra settings that are separate from the usual Chrome browser settings.

Open Chrome
Navigate to chrome://flags
In the Flags search field, type Screen Time
Toggle Screen Time from Default to Enabled
Quit Chrome and reopen it
posted by emelenjr at 3:56 AM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Also bear in mind that you are entering into a mildly adversarial electronic engagement with your kid, as I did with mine. I instituted the rule that if they bypassed Screen Time and I caught them, then they wouldn't be in trouble if they confessed how they did it.

Since then, I have had to: block downloading other applications from the app store (they were downloading other browsers to bypass the block); turn off the ability to create guest accounts (the guest account doesn't count for Screen Time); change the Screen Time passcode multiple times (they are good at shoulder people entering the passcode for additional time); and block use of the terminal app (they found out about text-based browsers which worked for some of their distracting things). I am happy to engage in this with them because I want to encourage a certain subversiveness but I'm not sure how much the electronic controls have been able to replace a certain physical monitoring and awareness.
posted by procrastination at 6:15 AM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: The chrome://flags trick says "Only enabled on macOS 12.1 and later" - so I guess I might need to get a new MacBook for my kid after all. I didn't think this 2015 hand-me-down was that old!
posted by Mushroom12345 at 5:06 PM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Apologies for the wrong information in my original answer, emelenjr is correct.

But, it also depends whether your kid needs to be strictly limited. The chrome setting is fairly easy for them to revert, unlike Cold Turkey.
posted by riddley at 6:31 PM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]