Bark - Parental Controls

Name: Bark - Parental Controls
Rating: 3.97577 (11844 reviews)

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Bark - Parental Controls

Productivity

11.8K ratings

Age Rating

12+

Seller

Bark Technologies Inc

In-App Purchases

$5.99 – $99.99

View in App Store

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User Reviews for Bark - Parental Controls

Parents I STRONGLY support and recommend

As a parent of three daughters, I was suspecting that my girls were getting into some shady activities behind parents' closed doors. This led me to uncover some serious sexual activity. Follow your heart, don't let your feelings lead you astray. Act now to prevent your child from becoming a victim of a sick person. Thank you for helping me uncover things I wasn't aware of, Bark. My support for parents and this app is 100%. It has my highest recommendation. I am truly grateful our girls have faith and trust in their parents. Our main concern Is to make sure that our kids are safe and protected and this app has allowed me to do exactly that. Other "kids" giving such negative attitude reviews on this app shows and proves that they don't have any trust in their parents to begin with, and they are just being malicious and irresponsible. My opinion, 100%. As a parent, I have never been a fan of any social media app, because most of them have nothing but sick minded, perverted people on them... This is why kids are becoming victims of sex trafficking or being attacked by online predators these days.

AppReviewerAnonymous, May 21, 2022

This is How SkyNet Begins

We were initially happy with the app as it showed us some of the content our son was seeing and prevented him from staying on his phone late at night. Unfortunately, it become more problematic as time went on. Any software update meant I had to manually reset everything in the app and in iOS. This happened several times a week and was definitely a burden. The phone then began to lose functionality. Texting and calling was sporadic, googling anything was impossible, Find a Phone didn’t work, the phone couldn’t be synched or backed up, the Wi-Fi connection would get blocked and we ended up getting overage charges because of it. Worse still, trying to remove the app is a challenge. It does not want to go (hence the SkyNet reference). I can’t fully delete it and it won’t let me reset the phone either. It blocks any attempt to reset the password or connect to the internet. I’ve had to reach out to Apple to see if they can remotely change the password. It will take several days if it can even be done And, this is after I cancelled the service and removed my son’s phone from monitoring. Yup, it continues to block most access to the phone even after I’ve asked it to stop. In a few years, this app will likely kill us all. My recommendation, steer clear of this and hope there’s a John Conner out there.

BaggyPantsDevil, Jul 28, 2022

Bc I can’t trust other kids..

My 13 yr old daughter was asked for nudes by a 13 yr old boy. I had to find this boy’s father and tell him what had happened. I trust my daughter to do the right things and in this instance she swore him out (we were actually proud of her for that) and told him no. I do not trust other kids to not send her things that she doesn’t even want, or pictures of them nude, which btw a child can be prosecuted for having child pornography on their phone even if it’s their boyfriend or girlfriend. The teenagers scoring this low are either doing things they are not suppose to do, or their parents have not explained to them that it’s the lack of trust in other kids and their parents. Let’s face it, not all parents take the time to actually teach their kids right from wrong or have the tough conversations with them.. I know my parents didn’t. For the parents reading this review, it would be a good idea to learn about new tech and apps and look them up before allowing your kids to have them.. ex: Snapchat was literally created to send pornographic images between adults.. and it deletes the pics unless the other person saves. Your kid might not be sending nudes, but it doesn’t mean someone isn’t sending it to your kid.

Cfont79, Jul 08, 2020

Older Teen Perspective

I honestly wish this was something I had to keep me safe when I was younger, I’m 18 now and most of the 1 star rating are from young, easily to manipulate teens who haven’t seen the bad thing in the world that will hurt them. This app is wonderful and helps parents know what’s happening so they can know what they may need to discuss with their kids. This app help protect children from bullying, death threats, child grooming, and pedos, which none of these younger teens most likely don’t understand what that’s like. I this app will help not only your kid but parents too! Parents will know that a grown man who’s 43 is talking to their 11 year old and is asking for inappropriate things. There have been cases of children meeting online friends and are found dead or kidnapped! There are sick and twisted people out there and this app protects children from them. Thank you for making such an amazing app!You younger teens can be upset that you’re being monitored but your gonna be thankful that your parents helped you not be manipulated by a stranger. The internet is very dangerous and do not trust online strangers no matter what.

cherrypsycho, Apr 23, 2020

Beware: your child can simply delete this

It is completely useless for older children who know how to delete an app. I wasn’t sure if it was possible for my daughter to delete it, so I tried to see if I could delete it off her phone and sure enough I was able to. I did not get any notification until 30 minutes later. When I looked at the notification, all it said was my child’s account needs attention or something vague like that. This is the same as all other notifications such as when the VPN is being spotty, so I had no idea it was complete removed from my daughter’s phone. Thankfully I do not have any concerns about my daughter’s mental health, but in theory 30 minutes is ample time for a child to delete the app, look up how to commit suicide, and commit the act. Similarly, 30 mins is ample time to look up that photo or video or whatever that they’re dying to see that Bark would have blocked. This is a major issue and I no longer see the utility of this app for a tech-savvy pre-teen. I understand that Bark’s suggestion to circumvent this issue is to use Apple Screen Time to put parental controls on deleting apps, but the entire purpose of purchasing an app such as Bark is because of the very well known unreliability of Apple’s Screen Time. I should not purchase an app subscription and be told to rely on an external app in order for it to do its job. Very disappointed.

Emily aka AB's mom, Apr 22, 2022

The best monitoring app I’ve tried

This is honestly the best monitoring app I’ve tried, and I’ve tried a few. Yes, iPhones are tricky and you have to install iTunes on a laptop and go through a whole set up. But after the initial install it has managed itself. Every now and then my laptop will unsync with the wifi and I have to link it again, but as soon as I do, I can see my daughter’s phone being backed up into iTunes. My recommendation is to go read the Bark Kids reviews. They’re comedy gold. They are so angry with this app doing what it was designed for. If only they understood that the app actually helps maintain a sense of privacy because it only alerts when there’s something wrong so parents don’t have to physically take the phone and read through all the typical teenage angst and rants. My advice: never freak at the alerts, open and read the content before approaching your child. I once got a suicide alert and what I read broke my heart. A friend’s mother had attempted suicide and the friend was sharing with my child. I had time to process how I wanted to approach this subject with my child (we had never talked about suicide) and we had a great talk. I purchased the annual membership right away.

lilsNothappy, Jan 03, 2022

This app is ridiculous.

Y’all ever wonder why our kids try to hide things from us? It’s because of things like this! Things that report to you what your child is doing ruins trust in the family. Our children will want to hide more things from us with this app than ever. A phone is an incentive and is a reliever for our children. If you feel the need to monitor your child’s actions then one, they are not mature enough to have a phone or social media, two, you’re not doing a good job explaining responsibilities to your child in order for them to mature. I’ve seen country amounts of children get outted to their parents about their sexuality BECAUSE of this app! It really does upset me that children did not have to time to explain their sexuality to their parents and have an actual moment to explain because of this app. As a parent I would never NEVER in courage for this app to be put on a child’s phone. If you feel the need to monitor their phone, WHICH YOU SHOULD NEVER DO unless something extreme has come up, then you sit down with them and simply say, “Hey I just want to monitor your phone for a little bit if you have an sensitive things that you talk about to your friends with then just let me know and I won’t read through it.” ITS JUST THAT SIMPLE!! I’ve seen many LGBTQ+ youth members have their lives torn apart by this app! This is a ridiculous thing to make!

peastoch, Jun 05, 2021

This app helps to keep my kids safe!

I feel so much better to know there is someone helping to keep my kids and their friends safe. I am a therapist and work with mental health issues every day. I believe I have a very open and honest relationship with my teen. I believe she has more insight into mental illness and many of the dangers that are out there. So having this app has nothing to do with me not trusting her or not having an open healthy relationship and honest communication - its another way for parents to help navigate this tough world. Whether it’s my child or one of her friends thats struggling with depression or self injurious behavior or a very sick individual slowly but surely attempting to groom my child - I want that chance to be able to intervene and make aware the potential dangers. To discuss what occurred or what options there are to deal with the situation and talk it out. Beyond having the app - I had the opportunity to speak for about an hour with one of the Bark support team members and he was super helpful. All of my questions were answered and he never rushed through anything. He was kind and patient and very knowledgeable. So far I have not found anything that I would change! Thanks Bark!

picklestraw, Jul 09, 2020

16 y/o pov, kills relationships

hi i have some very strict parents (mostly my mom) who decided to put this on my phone a couple of years ago as soon as i got it. i’m 16 now almost 17 and my mom isn’t letting me get it off anytime soon. in fact, this app has made me walk on eggshells around both of them and has pretty much destroyed my relationship with them. i feel comfortable telling my parents absolutely nothing, as they are looking to be more involved in my personal life. they do not trust me to tel them if there are serious problems in my life, and downloading this app only shows the lack of trust u have to ur kids. idk about other people, but respectfully, i hate what it’s done to me. i’ve had to buy a second phone just to text my friends in privacy. i’ve seen the comments and reviews of the developers saying “we only show certain things to monitor privacy”, but it’s not exactly true. the thing uses key words so if someone typed ANYTHING remotely concerning at all, the app sends about 10 texts from that conversation to ur parents. look, all im trying to say is i highly don’t recommend this app. it has destroyed any trust i’ve originally had with my parents, it shows their lack of trust in me, and it leads me to find other, more extreme ways of finding privacy. i would hate to get to this point with my kids i pray every day that i don’t. i hope y’all found this helpful

sutherland678, Nov 15, 2021

privacy

teenage point of viewwhen our parents we’re younger they got to have fun not get tracked have freedom and learn as they grow the responsibilities of maturing. As a kid, 15 years old i believe this app goes against everything a childhood should be apart of. I promise you if you actualt sit down and have a conversation with you child you can creat a much more meaningful influence on there decisions instead of downloading an app where there nervous about everything they do and if there parents are reading what goes on with there friends. Growing up is going through ups and downs with kids. Having them learn what is right and what’s wrong. If you just put and app like this on a kids phone i promise there going to figure out ways to get around it or override it. your not helping them be safer you just loosing there trust and make them learn different ways to talk to there friends with out being monitored through everything they do. I beg you not to get thing for your kids and look into different solutions. This will juts destroy your trust you once had with you kid. Kids deserve to have privacy just like you did when you were a kid. i know the world is different and you have to learn how society as changed it but it doesn’t mean you have to intervene into the live that is a kid and it’s friends. it’s not going to make a good difference for them only for u. and it’s juts gonna loose each other’s trust forever.

the app critict, Mar 22, 2020

Description

Bark provides families with all the tools they need to raise kids in the digital age. Our comprehensive service lets you monitor content, manage screen time, and filter websites so you can get peace of mind while your child is online. CONTENT MONITORING Bark monitors your child’s texts, email, YouTube, and 30+ apps and social media platforms for issues like cyberbullying, adult content, sexual predators, profanity, suicidal ideation, threats of violence, and more.

Parents receive alerts only when something potentially problematic occurs online. You won’t have full access to everything on your child’s phone — just the things you might need to know about. SCREEN TIME MANAGEMENT Families can set healthy time limits and create schedules for when their children’s devices can connect to the internet (through both cell service and Wi-Fi). WEB FILTERING Our web filter lets you select which websites your child can access on their devices. You can allow or block specific sites — or even whole categories like streaming services, online gaming, sexual content, and more. BARK TESTIMONIALS • "My wife and I LOVE Bark. We've had some tough but productive conversations with our 13-year-old son. It's proving to be extremely valuable." — Josh L. • “It’s just another set of protections we as parents give our kids for the digital environment (or as my 10-year-old calls it, a “cell phone seat belt”). My oldest is a 9th grader, and while I trust her, I’ve come to realize through the alerts that some of her friends aren’t truly her friends. It’s led to some amazing conversations about choosing friends wisely and recognizing toxic people. While she wasn’t for Bark at first, she’s since said she’s grateful that I saw those messages because it reaffirmed what she was feeling but didn’t know how to verbalize without sounding sensitive.” — Bark Parent • "Bark notified me that my young daughter had unknowingly revealed her phone number to strangers on Twitter. The fact that Bark notified me was impressive and led to an informative discussion with her the same day." — Jon B. • “Since Bark alerted us to the suicidal language used in the Google doc that was being used in a chat document with a friend, we have seen both a pediatrician and a licensed counselor. We are hopeful for a positive outcome. Thanks to Bark for letting us peek into our child’s mind!” — Bark Parent • “This app is a lifesaver! It has allowed us to catch so many “red flags” in the content my kids have accessed on their devices and in their interactions with friends and other people online that I wouldn’t have ever known about otherwise. The big difference between Bark and other “Parental Control” software is that Bark allows your kids to have so much more privacy. It doesn’t show you everything they do, but sends an instant alert regarding any activity that might be concerning. Highly recommended!” — Bark Parent With Bark, you can help keep your kids safe both online and in real life. Try it out for seven days absolutely free! Our Family Online Safety Specialists are standing by to help answer any questions you may have. Email [email protected] or visit help.bark.us to get answers and advice from the Bark Team. Terms of Use https://www.bark.us/terms