Bark is a cleverly named solution that acts as a watchdog for your children’s social media activities, protecting them from all the online dangers that kids face in the digital age. Founded in 2015 in Georgia, the company received a great amount of media coverage in the U.S. – and for good reasons. Detecting over a hundred sexual predators and many potential acts of violence in American schools, Bark is one of the most comprehensive parent control tools on the market. It keeps an eye on text messages and covers over 30 popular apps and social media platforms. The service goes beyond just analyzing keywords. It uses artificial intelligence and statistical techniques to study context and give parents warning signs of cyberbullying, depression, drug use, and a host of other issues that are a huge concern for families. The best part is that you can take advantage of the 7-day free trial to test out Bark’s services and see if it fits your needs.
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Bark is a comprehensive parental control app: it supervises your child’s online activity, monitors their social media interactions, and raises red flags for any concerns it detects. Parents can create an unlimited number of profiles across many devices, meaning it safeguards the entire family. After setting up profiles and registering the devices that your kids use, you can manage your child’s screen time by creating schedules that limit access to certain apps and websites at specific times of the day. Another helpful feature is website filtering, which provides parents the power to restrict access to potentially harmful websites 24/7.
Bark sends alerts via text or email about any concerning issues, and it even checks deleted messages. It’s not restrictive to text either as the AI analyzes audio files, images, and text from pictures. Moreover, Bark covers email servers, file hosting services, incognito browsing, and more. As no parental control tool is perfect, Bark occasionally flags content as false positives, resulting in parents seeing questionable content without context. Fortunately, this is easily resolved by adjusting the sensitivity level of the content filter.
It’s also important to mention that Bark goes out of its way to help parents approaching their kids about online security. When the platform flags harmful content, it sends parents recommendations from childcare professionals on how to react and the best way to discuss the matter with their children. Same goes with music, where the app provides recommendations on how to discuss inappropriate music with their kids.
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Bark‘s main selling point is its ability to monitor a vast array of social media accounts. It covers all the popular social media outlets where children spend most of their time, such as Snapchat and TikTok – but that’s just scratching the surface. Other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Discord, Kik, and WhatsApp are also covered. Bark shows children’s online activity in its dashboard, which gives insights on app usage, screen time, and location history. The company aims to keep children safe by using advanced AI, which crawls through children’s online activity around the clock looking for potential threats.
Children express themselves through music and understanding what they listen to not only allows you to keep tabs on them but also gives you a sense of how they are feeling. Spotify, the popular music streaming platform, lacks features that prevent children from accessing mature content. Thankfully, Bark monitors Spotify for issues like suicidal ideation, threats of violence, and more. Instead of parents spending hours on end going through various playlists and looking up song lyrics, the service analyses the title and lyrics of a song and notifies parents when it identifies any harmful music.
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Call monitoring |
Bark’s mobile app runs on Android, iOS, Chromebook, and Amazon Fire tablets. While there is no exclusive app for Windows or macOS monitoring, Bark does have a dedicated browser extension that monitors a child’s browsing history and web searches, even when using incognito mode. Although it’s not possible to monitor texts and photos on iOS via the Bark Kids App due to Apple’s strict security, parents can enable iOS monitoring by completing a one-time setup. It’s only a matter of downloading the desktop app and plugging the child’s device to a Mac or Windows computer, and voila – Bark will analyze the device and forward copies of messages and photos to parents throughout the day.
It’s possible to set up location sharing on iOS and Android devices to automatically receive alerts when their kids arrive or leave a specific location. There’s also a check-in feature wherein a kid manually taps a button on the child app to confirm where they are. If necessary, parents can also send a request for their kids to check in.
Another option is getting Bark Phone – a black Samsung Galaxy A14 that operates with the Android 13, which comes Bark app built right into its system, giving the phone more robust parental control than just a regular cell with Bark installed.
Bark gives customers two product tiers to choose from: the entry-level, Bark Jr., and the feature-packed Bark Premium. Both subscriptions are available on a monthly or yearly basis. The cheapest plan comes with basic features to protect your loved ones and costs $4.09 per month on a yearly subscription, saving users up to 42% off.
The more popular subscription, Bark Premium, comes with a host of features and costs $8.25 per month with an annual plan. It’s best suited towards users who want full control over the monitoring of their child’s online activity. The plan provides text messages, emails, and content monitoring, as well as alerts for potential threats in real time.
Bark also offers a free 7-day trial, though users will need to add their credit card details to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA). If you need more time to test out the service, you can contact the company by filling out an online form on its website. It should be noted that Bark doesn’t provide refunds, so it’s best to make the most of the trial before subscribing.
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Bark has excellent customer service agents that guide users through the time-consuming installation process. Support is available via a chatbot, where you can leave your details for an agent to get back to you. Although the support team is not available 24/7, Bark has online forms for users to email questions directly.
The company’s website contains helpful guides and an extensive FAQ section, which tells you everything you need to know about the app and its features. Bark also hosts a large active group on Facebook, meaning you can get support and talk with other parents in similar situations. Moreover, everyone has access to the Bark blog, which provides news about app updates and informative articles about parenting life in the digital age.
Bark is a must-have for those who want total coverage of how their child interacts online. Its comprehensive content monitoring across more than 30 apps and social media platforms is second-to-none. In addition, Bark’s advanced AI does an incredible job of finding any potential issues over images, videos, and more. Features like Spotify monitoring and location sharing on Android and iOS apps allow parents to keep tabs on their children at all times. Thanks to Bark, managing your child’s screen time and restricting access to specific websites and apps couldn’t be easier. Despite the occasional false positive, Bark is still considered a comprehensive parental control monitoring tool. Although the company doesn’t offer refunds, there is a free 7-day trial to test out the service risk-free. After that, getting a paid subscription costs as little as $4.09 per month.
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