Bark - Parental Controls Negative Reviews

Bark - Parental Controls App Complaints & User Negative Comments 2024

Bark - Parental Controls app received 39 complaints, negative comments and reviews by users. Have you ever had a bad experience using Bark - Parental Controls? Can you share your negative thoughts about bark - parental controls?

Bark - Parental Controls for Negative User Reviews

✓ It could be a lot betterThere’s some pros and cons to Bark from a parents perspective. We don’t use it to micro manage or hover over our 15 year old but we use it as a teaching point to help him through these naturally hard times. So here’s my report: Pros: we enjoy getting the alerts of flagged issues and being able to provide feedback if the alert is helpful or not to keep getting them or not. We also like the check in feature where our son can hit a button real quick (like a text) to let us know when he arrives at his destination. It’s a lot more subtle than sending a text or a call to mom and dad. Cons: the alerts are delayed. Often when the teaching moment comes up for us, it’s been an hour or so and I would prefer it to happen a lot quicker while it’s fresh. You have to do these backups on a manual device and in the 21st century, these backups need to be cloud based . No back ups means no alerts. Also put on a feature in the app where you can’t uninstall it without a password because the kid will uninstall it. Once uninstalled, no alerts coming through..Greasey sandwhichVersion: 5.0.18

✓ This app is absurd.This app is extremely unacceptable. you’re tracking you’re children every move which causes them to not have a social life. By having this app it’s causing your children to want/ feel the need to hide more things from you. being protective of your children & trying to make sure your kids are safe is one thing but and having this app are completely different. this app makes children feel the need to hide something. most kids have nothing to hide at all and giving them this app makes them feel that you don’t trust them. your child feeling that you have no trust from them breaks family bond and causes conflict. there is absolutely no reason in the world that it’s okay for you to get a notification when ur child sent a text message. that’s absurd. if you want to be in ur child’s life so bad then be a better parent & create a trusting relationship. if you want your child to be the weird kid that has to hide everything from their parent and have no trust then get this app!.ThisappisabsurdVersion: 5.2.5

✓ Teens perspectiveMy parents had me and my younger brother get this app/program a few months ago and let me say it makes sense for kids (12 & under) but when you're a teenager or even before you want to talk about more private things without your parents knowing (i.e. me). it has ruined my relationship with my parents - not from their perspective but from mine. i haven’t told them hardly anything since they got this app. they blame it on me, say “you always are in your room” “talk to us more” “you’re always on your phone” etc. i literally have depression and they refuse to acknowledge that. id say this is a decent app for younger kids but please don’t get this for your teens. they (and i will guarantee you this 100%) resent you for this. talk to your child. they’ll 9/10 rather talk to you each day for 10 minutes what’s going on in their life than you spying on them. i opened up to my parents once and they keep expecting me to do so but i’m done. they made the choice to keep this app. so i’m making the choice to never tell them anything again until they get rid of it. this app also MAJORLY contributed/does my my depression. so thanks..Savimarie123Version: 4.0.24

✓ A teenager's view.Why can't you just trust your child to tell you about "concerning things"?? I get that it only alerts them if something concerning happens, but why can't the kid just tell you themselves. If I was assaulted online, I would tell my parents and so would any other sensible teen in this world. If you hide away the horrible things in this world from your kid, they won't be ready for adulthood. Think of all the concerning things you did as a kid, did they help you create a better view of how the world works? Did they teach you a life lesson? Probably. Now, kids can learn those lessons even sooner if you'd just let us do what we want! What we do when we're 13 to 15 probably won't matter when we're older. My parents have said, "Colleges look at your social media accounts." But not stuff from when I'm TWELVE. You all need to calm down with this "bad stuff happens online" spiel. Even though we're younger than you, we're still sensible. We know what we're doing and we can navigate the internet better than you, most likely. We know how to protect ourselves because we're growing up in the age of technology. Adios. P.S. I would give this zero stars, but it doesn't let me..Interior awesomeVersion: 3.0.2

✓ Not great for everythingThis app only teaches kids how to hide, it teaches them not to trust their parents. I know from experience putting all these excessive limits on kids teaches them to not use their phones and use other more dangerous methods to do whatever they want. It destroys any trust between parents and children. I understand you were once children but the world is so different now. This isn’t helping anyone, all it does it control your kids. And as soon as they leave or no longer have eyes on them 24/7 they’ll go and do all the things you tried to avoid. This app is so problematic for so many reasons. Parents I hope you realize this isn’t the way to help your kids, this will only cause them to hate or resent you. They will be bullied at school for having the app, people wont want to talk or text them because they know you’re watching. Forget protecting them from bullying online, it’s awful in the real world. And you can’t control them there. I’m begging you as a parent don’t do this to them. Imaging everything that’s on your phone becoming visible to your parents, you’d never use your phone again. This is extremely invasive and horrible to do to children. They will learn nothing from this, and they will only find more dangerous ways to do things. I wouldn’t wish this app on my worst enemy..BsubekwbdVersion: 3.1.1

✓ Not a good appDownloading this app and making your kids put it on their phone will only make them sneak around more. You should be able to trust your kids to do the right thing and if you can’t, then something isn’t going right when your parenting. I get it tells if something inappropriate is happening then you want to be alerting, but you should trust your child to come and let you know. This app violates privacy and if you lets say cuss and your child mimics you, it will alert you over a word that it finds inappropriate. It’s ridiculous how many of you can’t trust your children enough and if you can’t, then you should have never given them phones or allowed them to have social media. There are plenty of other good apps that let you watch your child’s behavior without violating every ounce of privacy they have. It will be your fault if you child ends up sneaking around or feeling like they are walking on eggshells around you because all you do is keep adding apps on their phones that make them believe they aren’t trustworthy and they are immature and childish. Not only will this app make your child feel bad, but it will also make them feel like they can’t talk to you about anything even though you are the parent and you are supposed to be the person they trust most in the world..HailllleyyyyyhayVersion: 5.0.16

✓ Don’t download this app. Hacked phoneI downloaded this app onto my partners phone and after a day of having it on his phone it’s completely hacked his phone and removed all the apps off his phone and stuff. He goes to his App Store and it says he’s already got the apps downloaded on his phone even tho they have disappeared. He can’t even use his Apple ID in settings because it just won’t let him click on it.Bigtiddys24Version: 5.2.5

✓ Do not use this(The fact that every single point in their comment to my review is lies is just more proof that you should not do business with this company). This is a very dishonest company. I did not know they still owned the phone. And then when the location feature wasn’t working they wouldn’t help, just kept passing the buck saying it was Google that we needed to contact. I could not even get an actual person at a Google to help me, it’s computer generated stuff that was I credibly unhelpful. When I told Bark I either needed the location feature to work or else I needed to disconnect the phone they insisted location isn’t really very important. Sorry, but they don’t get to decide for me what is & isn’t important. When I tried to ask for help in their Facebook group they blocked me. When I demanded that they turn off the phone they turned it off, but refuses to return the unused portion for the month. We hadn’t even used it for one week yet they kept the amount paid for the whole month. And then we had to return the phone (because apparently they still own it even though they don’t tell you that anywhere until you terminate service) & even though we hadn’t even used the phone they looked & said the screen was scratched & they charged us $59 for that lie. The whole thing is such a scam & they are so dishonest & sleazy. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY..Fishchick72Version: 5.3.1

✓ PrivacyTeenage point of view when 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 critictVersion: 3.1.0

✓ 13 year old boys point of viewOk listen this app is stupid. the reason why is because your literally deciding every single little thing your child is doing and choosing things for them instead of giving them freedom. my parents don’t have this app on my phone and they trust me and i don’t do anything bad online and if something weird goes on like predator or bullying i handle it myself and report it. also i am safe and responsible of my own actions and behavior online. what i have to tell this app is that it’s not a good app like look parents are suppose to protect their kids but not like this far. if your kid is 6 years old with a phone that makes sense but if they are 14 years old and have this app tracking them that makes no sense. i don’t know why these apps even exist like yes the internet is a disgusting,nasty,toxic,harassing place but common like your kids can protect them selves. i completely disagree with these types of apps one thing why the heck does this app have a screen time limit. hey i think your child can track and be responsible with their own screen time. one last thing if your kid is a teen then they are responsible enough to not be tracked every little thing they do on the internet and have a FrEe time or pause time like fr this is so dumb..Space_scientist1Version: 5.0.18

✓ I got this app at 15 i’m now 16 it’s ruined my familyI got in trouble for having inappropriate content on my iphone at 15 in june of 2022 in turn i got grounded for 6 months then this app was installed. at first it was smooth and didn’t seem to bother me. But as i got older and my teenage problems grew this app stunted my family’s growth. This app gives no space of privacy or independence from parent it even stalks your notes app where i personally write in a dairy and my parent was able to see this. My life’s been in shambles and i blame this app my parents don’t trust me and they feel the sense of security is in this app, i even started paying for my own phone so i could get rid of the app but they won’t budge i’ve been kicked out and we’ve had huge arguments and this app sometimes is at the root of the problem all because my family refuses to see me as my own person with my own privacy and boundaries. if your kid is under the age of 14 then this app is for you so you can keep your child safe but anything above that age is just down right disrespectful to there space. i’m only rating this app one star not for the hate of the devs or anything like that but for the sheer way that these “boundaries” and “protection” that parents put on there kids is a crippling feature to home life and beyond and you will have no trust with your child.UdudjjsVersion: 5.3.1

✓ Storage problemsWe got the bark app because my daughter was getting over 350 texts a day and didn’t do her school work for the entire month of October. I honestly think it was contributing to depression. We love what the app does combined with iPhone Screen Time/Downtime. I can shut off everything in less than a second. She is much happier and school is much better. And she hardly is able to use Tiktok, Snapchat, etc. We are having so much trouble with storage - I mean 350 texts a day for a couple of weeks it has to go through. And it goes through them again and again even though we have reviewed and deleted . Weird vids and bizarre photos that the teens think is funny. It’s a ton of space. We got an external drive and thought we pointed files to it. But it doesn’t seem to be working. Now we can’t find “troubleshooting” to try to fix where the files are going. And the home computer gets angry and slow because we can’t get the bark files pointed to the drive. We are NOT going to buy their storage when we have plenty. We keep contacting help but I think they are sick of us. It seems they want to wring more money out of us. I would totally give it 5 stars if the program had a few more options to get us to troubleshooting easier and making the storage easier to manage..3tarboVersion: 5.3.1

✓ Do not try this rubbishI always get messages that errors needs to get fixed, setup everything again and same messages over and over.Hamid16irVersion: 5.3.2

✓ ComplexGreat concept but I found the app very complex. It takes awhile to set up but then syncing the kids phones nightly or however one chooses to download the data to the Bark app for monitoring is another hurdle. I found the downloading takes up A LOT of data so best to use an external hard drive as another device besides just your cell phone is needed with Bark. I learned both devices had to be on the same operating system (as for Apple devices) to work optimally. Also, turning off a social media platform on the Bark parental controls doesn’t necessarily mean the kids can’t access. It may block the use thru the app directly but logging on thru the internet directly was an easy work around. The Bark monitoring on the kids phone was easy to shut on and off. Even when one used the iOS controls that supposedly prevented deleting things didn’t work. I could never feel confident using Bark. The company only gives you a short period of free time to evaluate the app before they charge the full annual subscription fee - be aware of this! It is not enough time based on the complexity of set-up. After months of trying to get the monitoring to work, I gave up. I wouldn’t spend my money on Bark..MKB-1Version: 5.0.18

✓ Privacy vs protectionI’ve seen plenty of parents praising this app, just as i have seen plenty of children bashing this app. personally i haven’t used it, nor was it used on me. however, knowing how i was when i was younger, and how dangerous some people can be, i don’t exactly blame some parents for using this app. however, that doesn’t mean i agree with how some parents decide to use this app. yes, this app is great for monitoring the PROTECTION of your child, but they still deserve their own level of PRIVACY. it is not the developers fault that a parent may decide to abuse the power this app can truly hold. in all honesty, i think this is a good app. if you’re concerned about your child being targeted by dangerous people and want a way to be sure they’re safe, i definitely encourage using this app. but if you just want it because you want to know what all your kid talks about, posts, etc. then you’re definitely not someone i can respect. again, you can’t blame the developers because your own parents don’t respect your privacy. they just wanted to make an app that helps protect you..El3o3Version: 5.1.1

✓ Okay just please noteThis interface is easy to install and does what it says it will. However, it takes a ton of storage space and only works when a phone is at the house on wifi. It also doesn’t show you what information is being sent only alerts for what is “inappropriate”. I know some parents are like well that’s how it should be. But you are a wise parent if you know not to say “my kid would never” because sometimes it’s not bc something that has happened in your family and it is caused by external sources. So, if you are having issues with a teenager that’s mid-late high school I would want to know the specific information, not just what Bark tells me. BUT whatever you do don’t use webwatcher (who does show the specific info) because it is a total scam to get your money and it doesn’t work. If you are just trying to keep your kid safe on the front end this is a great thing to have!.NolethetaVersion: 5.2.5

✓ ConfusionIt is not clear on what each instruction means throughout the set up.Supercoolkiller1Version: 5.3.5

✓ Frustrating with iOS.I had to contact support to get this to work with my daughter’s iPhone. Support walked me through everything and nothing worked. The last thing they told me was to reach out to Apple for support! As if Apple cares. I wasn’t going to waste my time and since I was within my 30 day trial period, I was going to cancel before paying such a large sum of money when this started working. Since then, it’s the same thing every so often. Apple updates their security and Bark becomes useless again. I’m now at the point where I cannot get it to work again after going through all the troubleshooting guides and it says contact support. For the amount I paid for this app, it needs a lot of work. If I had time to sit around and chat with support to troubleshoot this every few weeks, I’d just scroll through my kid’s phone instead. Waste of a lot of money and time on top of that. And furthermore, still unable to monitor my child’s phone without just directly going through it myself..Pop1219Version: 5.3.1

✓ Not IOS friendlyHad this app, had the pro version. It was not user friendly on iPhones. I had to have my home computer on at all times. When my computer would go to sleep mode bark would somehow disconnect and I had to physically connect my child’s phone to the computer. Then the computer bark app would somehow quit working, ALL THE TIME. I had to uninstall and reinstall countless times. At some point I couldn’t get into it on the computer app and just had to go online to login. Customer service tried to help but no use. It was an issue from the get go and didn’t stop for the entire year. I finally gave up and uninstalled it from everything once my subscription ended. Cherry on top, I couldn’t get into it to allow anything once my subscription ended but it didn’t stop working on my child’s phone, making me lose control of it until I uninstalled and logged out of her phone. WHEN it worked it was fine, although it stopped monitoring pictures after about a month. Just problem after problem. Sorry Bark, not for me..Michael&DeniseVersion: 5.2.5

✓ Invasion of Privacy IMOI understand this app, and in theory it’s actually pretty good because it can protect your child from predators etc and if you have strict parents it can help them from not searching your phone 24/7. However, it is too sensitive. I don’t appreciate how it lets you read texts from your friends or see sites your child views. for one, not only does that invade the privacy of your child, it invades the privacy of the other child sending those texts. I saw one review of a child talking about the mothers attempted suicide. That wasn’t for the mom to see. that was a vent to the other child. Now I know rumors are being spread about that mother and her family 🙄. Just saying if my parents downloaded this on my phone, I would NOT be okay with it, I would just keep deleting the app until they yell at me or take away my phone. Luckily my parents aren’t that strict. I know y’all are just trying to protect kids as you’ve said, and maybe this is like good like a 7th grader or below but that’s it. Imagine the rolls were reversed and we saw our parents searches and texts. I’m sure they would NOT be okay with that. Anyways love 🩷.RJ172126Version: 5.3.1

✓ It’s safe but scary.What I find really scary about this is my mom wants me to be safe and she says I can trust her but when she gets a notification on what I did she like scolds me and as it SAYS on the app, “ have an understanding conversation on why it’s important not to do these types of things “ I get yelled at or sometimes my mom is kinda “ understanding “ but it’s scary how I know my parents are monitoring everything I do it’s a great app only if your parents understand that your child is still learning on how bad things can be when you do bad things. Today I said some unkind words like profanity kind and I was screen recording on accident so I panicked and I realize what is gonna happen, also I wish my parents would realize not every person on the internet will kidnap me or try to get my info like.. I’m aware enough not to give it to them and I wish my parents could just let me roam the internet but there are other inappropriate things in the internet I shouldn’t see which is something I will avoid. p.s most parents are very bad a keeping track of what happens on the app when their child has their phone lol.GACHA_COOKIE>:3🍪crap :pVersion: 5.2.5

✓ Drain battery and slowed phonesAfter ONE school day, the kids and my kids phones all went flat, kids could not plug theirs in at school, so what’s the point! Screens would not work properly on the kids phones either. I really wanted it to work!! But once we deleted everything and re started the phones they are back to normal. Damn it.JohannaS1980Version: 5.3.1

✓ Beware: your child can simply delete thisIt 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 momVersion: 5.2.5

✓ Just not clear enoughI thought this would definitely solve our kids recent hiccups with internet use but it didn’t, it missed the mark I found more than a handful of times it didn’t block content as it should have, you tube and google were connected and he still got a wide array of you tube videos that were not age appropriate even though it has parental controls and bark , it also warned me about 13 times I had to reconnect you tube to the account…. I was done by the 3rd day, google searches were all over the place and it flagged an ad for cat litter 🤔 as inappropriate…overall Bark failed to deliver for us , we’ll keep searching for now. Note*** Another thing I found especially annoying was that it also hard to connect and scan all the time especially when you have to connect it to a computer or a laptop and some devices simply cannot connect to each other. Overall not a good experience for us but i had high hopes..ConcernedmommaVersion: 5.3.5

✓ Bark From A Pre-Teens ViewDon’t get me wrong, this is a great app, but not for older kids. We understand that we need to stay safe online. All you need to do is talk to us about it and that’s it. You don’t need an app to monitor what we do! I see most kids say that it invades privacy, and yes slightly. I also believe that the age rating should be changed. I think it should be 7yrs and younger. Why? At a younger age, kids don’t understand that people want to harm them. Parent’s, there is no point in downloading the app if you can just talk to them! Plus you should give your child device’s if they have shown that they are responsible. Plus, kids can have a weird sense of humor and it couldn’t tell when my friends were joking. It always feels like I’m walking on eggshells! It doesn’t even let me comment anymore on videos and some things get blocked/restricted, even though the YT video is fine. The worst part is Even if I get my mom on my side, she’s not going to cancel bc she PAID for it. Parents, LISTEN TO YOUR KIDS, They aren’t going to open up to up to more if you download this. You are losing your kids trust, and it feels like you don’t trust us. It’s bad both ways. Please, Please don’t use this app..Hi Im OliviaVersion: 5.0.10

✓ This is How SkyNet BeginsWe 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..BaggyPantsDevilVersion: 5.2.5

✓ I don’t recommendHard to setup and not useful. I don’t like it and I can’t recommend it for parents. Waste of money..MichegirlVersion: 5.3.1

✓ Destroys child and parents relationshipsFrom a teen’s perspective: This app is great if you want a puppet instead of a child. Teens are supposed to have some privacy, I understand going through there phone in desperate and important situations, but this is too much. For teens the phone is like there diary, the need to be able to talk with the people they trust without parents being able to see. Teens should know right from wrong and this app oversteps the line. This app flagged me once for “depression” because i texted my friend that my dog died. This app is just a way for parents to control their kids. This app destroyed my relationship with my parents, I can’t tell my friends any secrets without my parents knowing, and I can’t even text my friends without thinking “what if my parents get mad at me for saying this?”. Please if you are considering getting this app for your child:DO NOT! You need to trust your child to do the right thing, if you are getting this app because you don’t think you can trust them…well then you raised them wrong..DjjdghVersion: 5.2.5

✓ Not compatible with Apple, no online supportI wish I had known how poor customer service would be before paying the annual fee. This app is not very compatible with apple and there are bugs all the time. Bark support blames this on Apple, which is probably partly true, BUT they don’t have real time customer service. You have to email back and forth and usually the tech doesn’t address the question until the 3rd email (just sending links to online help guides). For a paid subscription, there should be real time online customer service. They have the staff to monitor a fb page to make sure no one posts anything negative or asks any questions about problems. Letting the bark user community assist one another on that page and then transferring those page police personnel to online support would be an easy way to improve customer service. They seem to be more committed to keeping the negative issues with Bark secret rather than addressing them and improving the app..MelkreviewsVersion: 5.3.1

✓ 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!.PeastochVersion: 5.0.10

✓ 16 y/o pov, kills relationshipsHi 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.Sutherland678Version: 5.1.1

✓ Waste of timeTook my daughter less than an hour to discover there was a new app on her phone and she simply deleted it “I found an app that was sucking my internet!”. Makes the whole thing completely pointless.SusmumVersion: 5.2.5

✓ Breaks privacyI understand my mom wants to protect me but she often set a the sensitivity level too high and is seeing things that are private to my life. Things are very different now from when our parents grew up. Technology has advanced a lot. That’s why apps have things where you can report stuff. This app would be good for younger kids or somewhat irresponsible kids but the kids and teens that are trustworthy, you are only teaching to resent you more. I admire this app for wanting to protect us but some things need to stay private and separate from out parents. We should feel comfortable with talking to our friends without thinking “what if my mom or dad sees this”. This app is great for security but not so great for teenage life. I understand that the app creators are adults which is why they’re only going to continue to do this their way because it’s their prospective. You need to get some mature teens on your team so that they can feel safe, but also comfortable. I cannot stress enough how safe I feel but also how robbed of privacy I feel. I wish the internet was different..LovetoreadinParisVersion: 3.1.1

✓ Difficult to manage on iPhoneThis app does not work easily with iOS devices. There are many workarounds that I had to do in order to get it to get it to work. About every month the app and my daughters phone would quit working together; which required an intervention from me. A couple of times I had to completely uninstalled the Bark app and then reload it back onto my daughters phone. This was very labor-intensive. And after I tinkered around with the app and the screen monitoring feature in iOS I realized that the screen monitoring feature was all I really needed. The Bark app had one unique feature which was it would alert me to things that my daughter would text message her friends. That feature however was overly sensitive. It would alert me to what it considered medically concerning content if one of my daughters friends texted her that they had Covid, or a headache, or needed to take ibuprofen. I could’ve disabled that and then it would have not alerted me to any medical content. Also it was very difficult to cancel the subscription to this through the Apple App Store..A&EWorkmanVersion: 5.3.5

✓ DisgustingI’m so disappointed in the parents that get this app for their kids phone. My mom is getting it for me for no reason. She’s just scared. I understand that but your not really getting it for your kid, your getting it for yourself so you don’t have to be scared anymore. This app will only break the trust between you and your child. I can tell you that right now. There are just some things that you don’t need to know. That’s the whole point of responsibility and learning. I know you don’t want to face the truth but kids swear, they have crushes, they talk about sex, and they have probably had a drink or two if there in the older teens. When you were a kid you probably have done all of that. So there is no need to make your kid feel scared or feel like they need to hide something from you for just being A NORMAL TEEN. There are just some things that kids just need to talk to other kids about rather a parent non the less a strict parent. So please don’t get this app for your kid, if you do they are just going to push you away and not want to talk about stuff with you. Trust me they are just going to find another way to do all the stuff you don’t want them to do..Jdndncbnedbj74Version: 4.0.6

✓ Controlling parent paradise ^_^Enough with the “only alerts for concerning things” My parents got alerts for anything I saved on Pinterest that had gay on it. Lil sketchy, don’t you think? It would pop up for BULLYING. Honey what? Way too much parents can control. Deleting apps can be turned off. RELIGION CAN BE BLOCKED. I’m not even religious but yet that just.. feels like something that shouldn’t be blocked??? My parents have blocked literally everything. I can’t do ANYTHING. They control my life more than I do now. Every single message I send or receive that “might be harmful” is sent straight to them. I used to feel trusted and safe around them. Now I feel like they don’t trust me at all. I used to talk about my problems instead of bottling them up. Now? I can’t. I don’t have that safe space where I feel like I can get it off my chest, and tell them when I’m ready. They see EVERYTHING I do. It’s terrifying, I’m not going to lie. There’s too many things they can keep you from doing. I understand the need to protect your child, but Jesus man, give them some space!.Queenie114Version: 5.3.5

✓ Worst appThe app blocks my own phones contacts. Thankfully didn’t proceed beyond the free trial period. Absolute joke.Proud Aussie KangaVersion: 5.2.5

✓ App Okay, Phone not so MuchI had the Bark Phone for about 8 months and used it for about 2 before it locked us out and there was no way to get it unlocked. I tried tech support but you have to go through a bot and then you finally get a real person and can only get help through email, there’s no number to call that I could find? I went back and forth and finally decided to just return it since I was paying $60 a month for something we were not able to use. I was sent a return label and I failed to return it in time and was charged $125. Completely understand as that was my fault. I reached out again to find out if I returned it if I could get a refund for the $125 or was the phone just mine to keep now since we essentially paid for it. I was sent a new label and told to return the phone for a refund of the fee. I did within 2 days. They received the phone and sent another email saying that it was damaged and they were charging me $59 for damages???!!! The phone sat on a dresser for 6 months, not being used and had no physical damages and other than it being locked and us not being able to use it, it was in good condition. I replied asking for details on the “damage “ and I’ll see if they send any. If not, I’ll be disputing the charge! I also have not received a refund of the $125 so now I’m out over $200!.Kee919Version: 5.3.2

✓ Bark.Just no. Ive read a lot of these rating and the only thing you give back is dumb stuff like “we want to keep yours kids safe” “we don’t show the parents anything” blah blah blah. This app is VERY unrealistic and unresponsible. I promise you 100% your kids WILL find a way to by pass this app in dangerous ways no matter what. it will break your bonds if not already, worse. Your children will become more secretive and sneaky knowing that you are watching. It shows parents EVERYTHING. even a simple curse word will be flagged and reported. I promise this app will emotionally destroy your kids mental health drastically, There’s actual proof of parents writing reviews on how this app ruined there relationships and they cannot fix them. Please if you are a parent and you are reading this, for the sake of your childrens mindset and your guys bond, do not think about getting this app. And I know bark is going to write a cheesy review back. so once again, please do not get this unless you want your children to never talk to you again after moving out. thank you!.Yeet bugVersion: 5.2.5

Bark - Parental Controls works most of the time. If it is not working for you, we recommend you excersise some patience and retry later or contact Bark - Parental Controls.