According to Common Sense Media research, a teenager spends 7 hours and 22 minutes on their cell phone on average. The reported time does not include the time they spent on their device for their academic purpose. If you include the time they spend on their phone for their education, then the total time would be more than 9 hours.
As a mom, I am worried about what my teen does on their phone as they are spending such a long hour on the device. Constantly monitoring when they are on the phone might not be a good idea as kids want their space.
If you keep checking on your kids’ devices, they will feel you do not trust them. It can create a disagreement between you and your kids.
Kids are unaware of the dark side of the internet and the kinds of crime online. All they know is gaining a huge amount of followers, friends, likes, and comments on their posts.
But you as a parent might be aware of how cruel the world of the internet can be. Online bullies and scammers can harm your kids physically and mentally.
Therefore, instead of constantly checking your kids’ devices to know what they do on their phones, you can use the parental control app.
I use the parental control app to monitor my teens’ screen time and monitor their browsing activities. Here in this article, I am reviewing Bark which is a parental control app.
Bark is a parental control app that has been protecting more than millions of kids worldwide. The app monitors more than 30 apps and helps to manage their screen time. Barks offers some amazing features, some of which are:
Features of Bark
Screen Time and Web Filtering
The Bark app’s main feature is to keep track of your kids’ screen time, and total time they spend on each app.
As I already mention, kids spend half of their time on their devices. Hence it has been essential to keep track of their screen time. With this feature, you can set time for your kids, which will allow you kids to use their device only at the specified time.
This feature will also help you to filter inappropriate content from your kids’ devices. There are many contents available on the web, and you never know what your kids view in your absence.
Therefore, with the web filtering feature, you can be assured that your kids always view content that is right for their age.
Social Media Monitoring
This is the social media age; everyone is on social media. You can see many parents create their kids’ social media account right after their birth. It has been next to impossible for every one of us to stay away from social media.
You cannot just blame your kids for using social media excessively. First of all, you need to stop spending too much time on your social media then your kids can follow you.
Many kids are being bullied and scammed on social media by talking with random strangers. Hence, due to the increase in cybercrime through social media, it has been essential for you to monitor your kids’ activities on social media.
Using Bark social media monitoring feature, you can monitor social media like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. This feature keeps track of all the posts your kids made on their social media. You can even track their messages through this feature.
Text and Email Monitoring
Another important feature that bark provides is text and email monitoring. The app keeps track of text and emails your kids send from their device and text and email they receive on their device.
The app not just keeps track of text messages kids send and receive. It even tracks multimedia that they receive and send.
By monitoring your kids’ text messages, you will what your kids are up to and whom they communicate with the most. You will also get to know your kids’ friends’ companies by going through their text messages if they have been into them.
Parental Alert
The next feature that I can’t stop talking about is the parental alert feature. You will get an automatic alert when your kids perform any suspicious activities.
The app will scan email and text messages, and if it finds any suspicious words or any suspicious activities, the app will send you an alert.
Parental alert of the bark reduces your stress about your kids’ online behavior, as it will alert you about their inappropriate online behavior.
24/7 Detection
One of the app’s main benefits is that it keeps track of your kids’ device activities 24/7. You can view all their activities whenever they are connected to the internet.
This feature is extremely helpful to detect online cyberbullies, scammers, and online predators. Moreover, with this feature, you can detect if your kids are in any trouble if they are being bullied, having suicidal thoughts, and so on.
Pros of Bark
- Provides a simple user interface that makes the app easy to use.
- Easy to install.
- Keeps track of your kids’ device activities 24/7.
- It is compatible with almost all Android and IOS devices.
- Offers free trial period for a week.
Cons of Bark
- Has limited customization option.
- Can be better if there was the geofencing feature.
- It is quite expensive.
Pricing of Bark
Bark provides two price plans which are Premium and Jr; here is the following price plan of Bark:
| Plan | Price |
| Bark Premium |
|
| Bark Jr |
|
How to Install Bark
Since most of the parental control apps work in stealth mode, installing parental control apps can be tricky. One reason why I love the Bark parental control app is it extremely simple to install the app. Here how you can install bark on your device and your kids’ device:
Installing Bark on your android device
- Download bark from your Play Store.
- Open the app and sign in by entering your credential.
- Now add your kids’ information and connect with your kids’ device.
- Finally, customize the setting according to your preference.
Conclusion
Summing up, if you are looking for a parental control app that provides minimal monitoring feature, you should try Brak. With Bark, you can easily manage your kids’ screen time without disappointing them.
Moreover, bark has been useful not just for parents but for schools as well. Many schools are using bark to protect their students from cyberbullying and other cybercrimes taking place in schools. Its schools’ plan has features like image removal, custom alert, filtering and monitoring web contents, etc.
However, if you want some more features beyond the device monitoring feature, Bark might disappoint you.
