Bark - Parental Controls

In today's digital age, monitoring your child's online activity is crucial for their safety and well-being. Bark - Parental Controls is a comprehensive application designed to provide families with effective tools to help navigate the complexities of digital parenting. Launched on November 23, 2016, by Bark Technologies, Inc., the app has since amassed over 500,000 installs and has received over 7,350 ratings, maintaining an impressive score of 4.0 stars.

Key Features

Content Monitoring

Bark offers robust content monitoring that allows parents to oversee their child's interactions across more than 30 apps and social media platforms, including email, text messages, and YouTube. The service is designed to detect various issues that may impact a child's mental health and safety, such as:

• Cyberbullying
• Suicidal ideation
• Adult content
• Sexual predators
• Profanity
• Threats of violence

What sets Bark apart is its approach to alerts; parents are notified only when potentially troubling content is detected. This means that while you won't have unfettered access to every detail of your child’s online activity, you will be informed about incidents that warrant your attention.

Screen Time Management

Bark empowers families to establish healthy relationships with technology through effective screen time management. Parents can set time limits and create schedules dictating when their children’s devices can connect to the internet, whether via cellular data or Wi-Fi. This capability not only encourages responsible device use but also promotes a balanced lifestyle for children.

Web Filtering

The app allows parents to control which websites their children can access. With Bark's web filtering feature, you can block or allow specific sites and even entire categories such as:

• Streaming services
• Online gaming
• Sexual content

This level of control helps ensure that children are not exposed to inappropriate material while exploring online.

Bark Home

For an enhanced experience, families can purchase the Bark Home, a small device that connects to your Wi-Fi router. This device, used in conjunction with the Bark app, provides extended functionalities across all Wi-Fi-connected devices within your home, including smart TVs, video game consoles, laptops, and tablets. An active Bark subscription is required to use Bark Home effectively.

Pricing

Bark's services come at an affordable monthly rate of $14 or an annual subscription of $99. For families looking for more basic features, Bark Jr is available for $5 a month or $49 annually and includes screen time management and web filtering.

Setting Up Bark

Setting up the Bark app is simple. After downloading the Bark app for parents and guardians, you'll need to install the Bark for Kids app on your child’s device to enable all monitoring and management functionalities. The app requires Android version 5.0 or newer.

User Feedback

Bark has garnered positive feedback from parents. With a histogram that shows 4,901 five-star ratings, it's clear that many users find value in its features. Nonetheless, it has also received its share of criticism, with 1,224 one-star ratings indicating some parents may have had issues.

• Total Ratings: 7,354
• One-Star Ratings: 1,224
• Five-Star Ratings: 4,901

Conclusion

In a world where children are increasingly exposed to online threats, Bark - Parental Controls provides invaluable resources for parents striving to protect their children while fostering a safe digital environment. Its comprehensive approach to content monitoring, screen time management, and web filtering makes it an essential app for parents concerned about their kids' online safety. With Bark, you can have peace of mind while your child explores the vast world of the internet.