That did it!
My daughter's in her forties, so setting parental controls seems ridiculous, but that is exactly what I had to do. On Yosemite, on my 2014 MBP, creating a standard user did NOT allow access to all the applications, only the "harmless" ones that Apple deemed okay. Once I "limited" access to certain apps, and then went back on with her account and repeatedly approved allowing things that I had no idea I HAD (certain google hidden bits, etc) all worked well.
I knew it had to just be some setting - but why all apps wouldn't be allowed by default, I don't know. Interesting. Though of course I've updated as requested, I was in the Yosemite beta program; I wonder if that got set then (there is an account I did NOT create called "test kid" which I'd never noticed before) and never got UN-set. Maybe someone who has Yosemite and has never tried creating a second standard user could let me know if they have a similar problem.