Bark – Quickly Becoming One of the Best Parental Control Apps for Phones for Knowledgable Parents
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In today’s fast-moving world, parents spend a good portion of their time in a constant state of worry about their kids. Especially regarding the hidden dangers associated with electronic devices like cell phones.
Over the past few years, I’ve given a go at some of the best parental control apps for phones. One of my favorites has been the Bark parental controls. It’s the second app I tried out before switching to other services. Then I came running back when I realized the Bark app features have made it the best parental control app on the market.
This Bark app review will look at all the amazing functionalities you get with the Bark parental controls and how they can keep your kids safe to help you decide if it’s the right fit for you.
My Quick Verdict – How Strong is the Bite for Bark Control App
I’ll admit – the first time I used the Bark app, I struggled with figuring out the time management features. So, I foolishly left for another subscription monitoring service.
I have tried Cricle, Google’s Family Link, and others but in the end, I came back to Bark. It has all the same functionalities and abilities as other parental controls. But what I really like about Bark is that it allows me to give my kids privacy to live their lives while being able to keep them safe through routine monitoring.
Bark can send me updates on my children’s emails, chats, search activities, what they watch, and how much time they spend on their devices. All without me ever having to touch their devices or snooping through their stuff.
Now that my children are in their pre-teen and teenage years, life looks a lot different. I’m around less to limit what they see and hear. They’re out in the world more often and have more freedom with their devices.
And that might excite many parents, but it truly terrifies this one! The world is full of so many hidden dangers. It’s a relief to know that Bark has my back on helping me keep my littles safe from harms that are out of my control, like cyberbullying and exposure to inappropriate content.
If Bark detects that my children are interacting with something I deem inappropriate, I receive an alert immediately. It doesn’t show me everything, which is good because I want my kids to feel like they have some privacy, but it alerts me to anything worrisome. In fact, when I first signed up for Bark, there was an optional quiz you could take. The quiz asked about different slang terms and emojis to see if I knew what they meant. Well, I’m embarrassed to say that I barely knew any of them! Bark does, though! When they spot concerning words, code words, or emojis… that’s when they send me an alert to let me know.
Let’s examine why the Bark is a superb parental control app for parents to install on their kids’ phones and other tech devices.
What is Bark, and Who is It For?
Bark is a blessing for parents looking for the best parental control apps for phones to monitor their children.
This subscription monitoring service has protected children online since 2015, trusted by over 3,400 school districts and private school systems.
Parents and educators rely on Bark to monitor over 30 online activities, create time limits, block websites, and filter potentially harmful events like cyberbullying or depressive ideations. Thanks to location sharing, it even lets you keep track of where your kids are.
My Story – Back with Bark a 2nd time!
Safety and security have always been my biggest priorities regarding my kids. And knowing all the risks associated with technology and cell phones in general, it has become crucial that I find ways to keep my kids safe while giving them privacy and the freedom to be independent.
After all, I want my kids to have the opportunity to stretch their wings while in the safe environment of home and be able to learn while I’m around to help them rather than be too locked down and stretch their wings for the first time when they are adults and “alone” in some ways.
When my kids were younger, what mattered most besides keeping bad stuff away from my kids was controlling screen time. Nothing is worse than seeing your kids acting like brain-dead zombies because they’re zoned out on tech.
I struggled with the time limits with Bark, as it gave me less control over specific settings than some other apps (more on that later in this post). But now that my children are older, it’s more important for me to know what content they’re consuming, if they are being bullied, and if they (or friends they are interacting with) are being inappropriate.
I’ve come to appreciate that I can keep up with my children’s online activities and know they are safe from cyberbullying, mental issues like anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and inappropriate content – without having to be a nosey snooper that goes through my kid’s phones.
Bark sends me important alerts about what I need to stay informed on without requiring me to do anything – can we say winning? This is why I returned to Bark after trying other parental control apps.
Bark Features – How Bark Can Protect Your Children
Bark is a monthly subscription monitoring service that allows you to track your child(ren) ‘s activities on their mobile phones, whether online, on social media platforms, or in private text messages.
You can install the Bark monitoring program on Android devices or iOS devices. This is the best app to add to your kids’ devices to give you complete protection for their offline and online safety. You can also sign up for Bark Home, which adds the added benefit of being able to monitor devices connected to your network, like computers, smart TVs, gaming consoles, and more.
Not only do you get to see your child’s activities on different platforms, but through the parental monitoring app, you can also set a daily limit for your child’s online activity, block specific websites and adult content, social media monitoring, and real-time alerts of your child’s exact location.
Here’s a breakdown of the different Bark parental control abilities.
Monitoring Abilities
Several parental control software apps let you reduce worry by acting as a net nanny to keep your kids safe. Check out these exceptional monitoring features that put Bark on my list of the best parental control apps.
Videos
Videos are one of the most used features on your child’s device. It’s brain-numbingly terrifying at the junk these kids absorb as a source of entertainment. Seriously, it’s now cool to watch videos of people opening boxes and playing video games. Come on, kids! Get outside and play in some dirt or something.
And unfortunately, there are way too many videos in the digital world geared toward kids’ interests but not age-appropriate. Bark is a great way to prevent kids from accidentally stumbling onto sexual content on their digital devices.
If they watch a video with inappropriate content, or even if someone they subscribe to posts a video with inappropriate content, you can be alerted to it.
Photos
Bark also monitors your child’s phone and desktop devices for photos of inappropriate content, as deemed by the program’s artificial intelligence algorithms.
Your program can detect images from Snapchat, texts, Discord, internet browsers, and other social media apps without revealing what images they get or send. It also monitors videos and sends alerts if it detects a threat or inappropriate or harmful content.
Text Messages
What I enjoy about Bark is that it allows me to give my children their privacy while being aware of what’s happening in their lives.
Some monitoring services give you full access to your child’s life, down to every word they speak, text, or receive on their phones. But Bark isn’t one of those invasive parental control apps. You don’t get access to every word on your child’s phone.
Bark scans your child’s phone but only sends you an alert if it flags a problem. Some monitoring services use a set of keywords that help filter content. But Bark is different and employs artificial intelligence algorithms that search for over 15 issues common with children’s phones, including drugs, hate speech, profanity, violence, inappropriate content, bullying, sexual content, anxiety, depression, and weapons. It also does an amazing job of staying on top of all the slang and code words used by kids so that it can spot things even we as parents would miss!
Apps and Social Media Platforms
New social media sites seem to be cropping up daily, luring our young vulnerable minds into some new trap of crap. Luckily, Bark tracks over 30 platforms and specific apps to keep your kids safe without you intruding on their privacy.
Bark can detect if your child creates an alternate account on their new social media apps. Or if they switch to a different profile than their normal accounts. This feature helps you avoid the concerns of your child having secret social media profiles.
A unique feature of Bark’s monitoring is that once you set up alerts on your child’s social media accounts, the program will continue to watch them, regardless of if they’re logged into their device. And if Bark detects that your child is using an app that it has the ability to monitor but that you haven’t added, you can get an alert that helps you (or your child) connect the account.
App and Website Filters
Many of us parents struggle with finding the right balance between the allowance for screen time and preventing overuse. Is there a perfect time for your little one? All the experts clash with their answers.
But regardless of what expert you align with, Bark makes it super simple to limit how much time your child can spend on their devices, whether blocking inappropriate content or specific websites or setting time limits that prevent access to gaming or streaming.
What I appreciated about Bark is that you can block apps and websites. But it also allows you to adjust the monitoring algorithm sensitivity. You can turn off alerts for issues you don’t want to monitor, such as the case of older children and profanity.
Bark uses a VPN (virtual private network) to protect your child’s data through an encrypted server. This function allows you to block apps and websites and connect to others. It also enforces safe searches for engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google, and other internet access browsers. You can also set a restricted mode on YouTube to filter unsafe content.
Bark can also do the impossible – monitor and control your child’s music exposure when you connect it to streaming services like Spotify. After setting up the controls, you will receive astonishing alerts whenever your child listens to a song that triggers your filters. Not only will you get a notification of what song your child is listening to, but it will also send you the lyrics and a link to the song so you can listen to it and decide for yourself whether it’s appropriate or if you need to talk with your child.
Functionality/Ease of Use
Overall, Bark’s basic and premium monitoring versions are easy to use and intuitive. You don’t have to be a tech genius to figure out how to use the app’s best features or read detailed reports.
You will need a smart-phone or desktop app to monitor your child’s app usage and activities like photos, text, and videos. Unfortunately, you don’t benefit from a monitoring app that can watch macOS and Windows devices. If you want to use web filtering, it requires installing the Bark browser extension for Edge or Chrome browsers.
And if you want to create screen time limits, use an app blocker, or restrict web access for desktop devices, you’ll have to purchase the Bark Home device.
There are also two Bark mobile apps for iOS and Android devices – one for parents and one for your child. The parent’s app is a fully functional control panel with intuitive behaviors for easy monitoring to help your child create healthy digital habits.
You can use the app for managing content monitoring, screen time settings, viewing insights and alerts regarding your child’s activities, web filtering, and requesting that your child do check-ins.
Track Location
Location tracking can be crucial for child monitoring, especially with older children who often go alone without supervision.
You can track your child using the Bark app downloaded to your child’s phone from the app store. Once you set up your child’s account and activate location tracking, you will see your child’s location in real-time (updated every five minutes) as long as there is internet access.
It also gives you directions to get to your child’s location. And it gives you your child’s location history to see where they’ve been over the last seven days. And for places that your child will frequent, you can use Bark’s geofence feature.
It allows you to label locations like home and school or set a boundary radius of 0.12 miles (200 meters), which alerts you when your child enters or exits the boundary lines.
Need to know where your child is at a certain time? Request a check-in to send your child’s device a notification that requires them to open the app and press the button to check in. An alert will come to your dashboard that displays your child’s physical address, location on a map, and a timestamp for verification. It will also give you detailed directions to get to your child.
Set Schedules
Nothing can be more challenging with kids and their devices than preventing overuse. Bark has three default settings or alternate rules for your child’s free time, bedtime, and school hours.
Once set, you can manually switch the rule set, pause the device’s internet, or let the app automatically enforce your set rules based on different times of day.
You can allow or block different apps with a toggle button, which I think is great for editing content as your child grows and matures. And you can set what apps your child’s device can access during set hours of bedtime, free time, or school. It even let me schedule different days to accommodate my children’s programs.
One of the things I struggled with the first time I switched to Bark was how to manage specific apps. The other parental control apps I had tried allowed me to set specific time limits for apps or categories of apps. For example, 1 hour of Youtube per day.
Bark doesn’t work like that. This was one of the reasons that I initially switched away from Bark. But now that I’m using Bark for a second time, I’ve learned a workaround that I think works even better!
In the Bark app, you can set different restrictions for different schedules – “default,” “school,” “bedtime,” and “free time.” Typically when they are on their phones, they are in the “default” setting because it’s not school or bedtime. So, under “default,” I have the usual stuff that I don’t need to lock down for a specific amount of time enabled, and the rest is disabled.
I leave the stuff I want them to have limited access to, accessible only under “free time.” When they want access to Youtube, for example, they simply ask, and I switch them to “free time” for a set amount of time. Bark will automatically switch them back to default after their time is up.
This lets me have a conversation with my kids about how they are using their time on these controlled apps and helps them build the habit of thinking about whether they really want to use that app right now or if they plan on aimlessly scrolling. I find that I prefer this method much more!
Activity Reports
Next, you can also get weekly email activity reports on your child’s activities. These reports will help you get an overview of your child’s weekly behaviors online with all of their accounts.
This overview will show how many activities they do daily, potential issues that arise, and how many monitored activities total the app scanned.
You also get an update on incoming requests and a breakdown of what was blocked and allowed, color-coded on a bar for easy visualization.
You can also find all of this information in your parent dashboard. The downside of these reports is that they could be more detailed, so you can’t get individual specifics on a particular threat.
Plans and Pricing
Bark offers two payment plans to fit your budget and needs. The Bark Jr. plan is an entry-level plan that costs $5 a month/$49 annually. And the Bark Premium plan costs $14 a month or $99 annually.
With the Jr plan, you get basic child monitoring services like screen time management, creating app and website filters, and receiving alerts on your child’s location updates. You can use this plan to monitor unlimited devices. The Premium plan has the basic features of the Jr plan. And you also get monitoring for over 30 platforms like email, YouTube, text messages, and social networks. Additional features include receiving alerts if your child encounters harmful content such as suicidal thoughts, online predators, cyberbullying, and other potential dangers.
There is also the Bark phone which I’ll cover in a separate post (read it here!)
Installation and Set-up
Once you sign up for a Bark account, you’ll choose from one of three apps to install on your devices. You can keep track of your child’s browsing history and device usage using the parental control application on your iOS or Google Play store.
And you can download the free app for Kids on their devices, whether a single device or multiple. The kids’ app can work for Androids, iOS, or Chromebook. There is also a Bark desktop app that you can add to your child’s home computer to protect their personal information.
Once you install the parental app on your device, you’ll easily be able to follow the prompts to get up your kids’ devices. Customer support is also an amazing resource if you need help.
Customer Support
Quality support is crucial for peace of mind, especially regarding our offspring’s safety. Bark offers many ways for you to stay informed and reach help in different formats.
There is also an extensive FAQ section full of various topics for a DIY approach. There is also a regularly updated blog full of useful information. You can also use the ChatBot when you run into issues.
Bark also offers excellent email support. You should be able to receive knowledgeable and helpful support for all of your queries in a short time frame. There is also the option to schedule one-on-one calls with customer service if you need tech support. But you can’t call and immediately connect with a representative.
And last but not least, bark started an amazing Facebook group for connecting with like-minded parents where you can learn tons too!
Bark App vs. Other Parental Control Phone Apps
Although Bark is an app geared toward monitoring your children’s phone uses for safety and security, it does not give you as much access to your child’s content or the ability to set time limits per app as other parental control apps do. That said, being immediately alerted if my kid is engaging in inappropriate behavior, suffering emotionally, or experiencing other mental issues is priceless.
In fact, a parent shared a story a few months ago in a Facebook group about how Bark saved her kid. He had begun to text friends to say his goodbyes and was planning to leave that night. Bark picked up on the interactions and understood the immediate risk to the child’s life. Normally Bark only sends notifications and emails, but this time they called the parents and saved the kid’s life. Other similar posts from parents say that Bark saved their child’s life.
This is one of the many reasons I have switched to Bark… it’s for this peace of mind.
Overall Opinion of the Bark Parental Control App
As a worried mom, I’ve done due diligence to find all the possible ways to keep my kids safe when they’re out of sight. Monitoring my children on their electronic devices has been one of my biggest challenges. I tested several programs before doing a second round with Bark.
As shown in this Bark review, this parental control app is one of the best tools to help me keep my kids safe on their electronic devices and in life. I can be aware of issues I should know about without invading my children’s privacy. It’s the perfect way to give my kids independence and freedom without seeming like an overbearing, nosey parent.
FAQ
Does the Bark App Have Access to Spoken Conversations?
Bark cannot monitor or record your child’s phone conversations or call history. But it does screen voice memos saved to iPhones to search for flagged content, depending on your set monitoring settings.
What Do I Do if I See Something Concerning in a Bark Alert?
I appreciate that Bark offers recommendations at the bottom of the alerts on talking to your children about the issue. It also gives you discount codes that you can use for teen online counseling.
Can Bark Monitor My Child’s School Email Account?
Most schools assign their children a Google account for their email, document management, and chats. But we all know these same tools can also work for social engagement. Bark offers to monitor your child’s school email for free. But only if your child’s school participates in the Bark Schools program.
Is There a Trial?
You can use a 7-day trial period to decide if you like the program before you move into a paid monthly subscription.
