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35 Customer Reviews - see all comments
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Founded in 2015 and based in Georgia, Bark Technologies, Inc. provides a parental control app that focuses primarily on online threats to children through social media, texting, and other lines of communication. The company was founded by digital media experts who aimed to create a parental monitoring tool that did not compromise children's privacy.
- Most comprehensive coverage of any parental control app
- FREE 7 Day Trial, and coverage starting at $5 a month
- Get alerts for cyberbullying, sexual content, and more
- Filter content, manage screen time, track locations, and monitor activity
Latest Bark Reviews
The Bark phone was a waste of money, time, and energy. My daughter got past the "controls", and they never worked right. They also don't tell you that you need to keep the original packaging when you return it, and you never own the phone no matter how long you pay the monthly fee. It was a very expensive mistake, but the amount of time and frustration I spent trying to make it work is what hurts the most.
This company false advertises. The bark phone is a rip off. There are too many hoops to jump through, customer support is slower than your great grandmother, and if the product doesn't meet your needs you won't get a refund. I would not recommend this product to anyone.
Wish I could give this ZERO STARS. Total trash! Basically all the app does is scan your kids texts, just like you could do. It hits on the most ridiculous things (someone says "my stomach hurts" and you MEDICALLY CONCERNING ALERT). It does NOT work on any apps they use like Snapchat, DIscord, etc. And with the latest iOS update, it doesn't automatically scan your kids phone, you have to have the phone inyour hand and enter the pass code every time. Every. Time. One of my kids phones it straight up doesn't work on. Don't waste your money!
I wouldn't ever recommend this platform to anyone. I think that this is the worst app anyone could have ever created. My parents got me a bark phone for Christmas unexpectedly. I feel left out all of the time from my friends who have iPhones, and I'm constantly stressed about everything, including my privacy not being respected. My relationship with my parents went from good to horrible. Our relationship has started to fall apart, and to be honest, I couldn't care less because of how frustrated I am all the time. The system is slow anyway, and costs too much money. I wouldn't recommend ever putting your child through this, unless you want that relationship to go down the drain. I'm a good... Read More
Reality vs expectations is very different for this app. Part of me wants to love it, but also the majority of me hates it. It would be great if apple didnt limit it, but your stuck having to trust the child is going to 1. Stay on WiFi, and 2. Trust they will let you scan it. The only way we can actually monitor, us if we take it and plug it in yourself. It feels like they want you to just buy there bark phone instead. I would not recommend this app at all, for the price and for what it does and does not do, you really are just better using the parental controls on the iPhone yourself.
I cancelled this app after a month. Sucks. Stopped monitoring texts after 1 week .
I used Bark at work since we work with at-risk minors. It was tricky to set up but worked for our purposes. I set it up at home. Without my permission, it added and charged me for additional features. I canceled my subscription the day after I was billed, expecting that like other subscriptions, I would have access until the end of the billing cycle. Nope. The 30 days I paid for were lost. I contacted them and the only way to use the time I already paid for services (which are pricy to begin with) are lost, unless I agree to resubscribe. Bark is meant to protect children from predators while using predatory practices itself. Very ironic and disappointing. I wanted to like and use this... Read More
Have had the app for about 8 months and have been very happy, however now we are having an issue and customer support is severely lacking! Difficult to get in contact with someone. They email or if pressed schedule a zoom call which is not at all convenient as they are not readily available. For the annual cost I am disappointed in the customer service availability.
I just left my previous service with Custodio because it wasn´t working appropiate and there was no good client service. I decided to give a try to Bark but it´s been impossible to set up the system in the iOS. My daughter has a Iphone and it´s not working. I need support to set it up appropriately, I already sent an email but I haven´t had a response. Please help me.
As has been noted by others, Bark DOES NOT work consistently with Apple products. It seemed that time that Apple had an update, Bark stopped working and we’d have to spend HOURS on email (you can’t call Bark - you have to set up an appointment to talk - days in advance!) and also with Apple. Don’t ever give your credit card to Bark. They renewed our subscription, even though we continued to have problems with it working. We asked for a refund within 3 weeks but they somehow talked us into trying to get it to work again. It temporarily (never went for more than a few weeks with all devices backing up to it,) so we asked to cancel a few months later. They refused stating that their terms... Read More
I LOVED this app for about 3 months, until it stopped working. I tried everything, but the only time it would monitor my kids phones was when I hooked them back up with the USB to my computer and then THAT stopped working as well. There are so many updates (both itunes and bark) that it took ALL the storage of my laptop. I finally learned how to delete ALL the Bark backups (when I told them I was cancelling my service) and suddenly my old laptop went from "no more storage" to less than 1/3 taken up. I wish they would tell you upfront that the backups will stay forever on your hard drive unless you go through 17 steps to delete them. I love the idea of this app but wish that it was more... Read More
This app is harmful to children suffering abuse and makes them less inclined to reach out to someone. In my personal experience, I had no idea my parents put this app on my phone until, when I was a teenager, I talked crap about my stepmom (I cursed). Then my dad confronted me and told me that I was disrespecting his wife and that I was an ¨ungrateful piece of sh*t¨ This app had a significant role in my childhood trauma and made me scared to talk to anyone (over the phone or through text) about what was going on at home. It took me much longer to tell anyone about my abusive stepmother and father because of this app.
as a 13 year old with a 15 year old brother. WE HATE THIS APP! i dont even wanna talk to my mom i feel so mad and i feel like i cant trust my mom. this app deserves no stars. i ligit had a mentail break down beacuse i had to get this app. i may have nothing too hide but i still dont want my mom going through MY texts, listening to MY calls, looking at MY snap, and looking and more stuff on MY phone im so mad at my mom. and unless you dont want a bad relashionship with your kid dont get this app.
While Bark is great monitoring program and certainly the most comprehensive on the market, it should be noted that they do NOT monitor Snapchat, nor do they monitor TickTock, or the private messages on Instagram.
It should also be noted that for iPhones, this app has not worked smoothly for the last couple years. I am constantly having to force a back up through the software, or plug the phone into my computer in order to update the monitoring. This is not Barks fault, it is an issue with Apple not giving Bark the access that they need. Regardless it is an issue.
I just started using Bark and it would be a great app except that for IOS it does not monitor the major apps that my children use. SnapChat and TicToc are only monitored if you have an Android device. Will be canceling soon as I cannot find any information on them planning to add these in the near future.
This app sucks, it did nothing that it said it would do. I got 372 alerts in one day for my son scrolling Facebook. It has not caught my son doing anything. When I went on his phone I found things it didn't. Don't download it, and DO NOT PAY for it!! it was a waste of my time and money!!!
Bark's customer service is just awful. You can't get anyone on the phone. They follow up hours later by chat. I had a lot of issues trying to connect my child's accounts and no one would get back to me. I set up a help call and no one contacted me. I finally gave up and will now use another service. Do not use Bark if you value your time. This company needs to get their act togther.
Customer service and support is a joke. I’ve been reaching out for tech issues for 2 months with very little help. The app notifies me 2-3 days late on anything that is flagged, which is NOT helpful. The back up process that has to be done every 6 hours manually is very very time consuming. What a hassle!
Bark continues to alert me to issues I would have never discovered on my own (in digging through my son's phone, TikTok, and text threads). I'm so thankful for this app.
Of all the alerts I got for my two children, only one was reasonable. My daughter texted her mother that she was sad her friend couldn’t play. Flagged for depression. Most of the alerts made no sense. No functional way to adjust settings on alerts other than to mute/ignore categories or recipients.
I was within three weeks of auto renew so my only option was to cancel my account. Doing so immediately removed my account and the remaining time left (three weeks) that I had paid for. I’m not too upset about that part... I pretty much stopped using it a few weeks ago. But it is a sleazy business practice.
Bark in instrumental in helping parents keep their kids safer online. There are just too many factors, apps, messages, deep dark corners of the internet that we would never be able to keep track of in order to monitor our children by ourselves. Bark has alerted me to so many things that I have then been able to go to my children and have honest conversations about. Its just too much to keep up with, without the help of Bark. I am forever grateful for everything they have done for my family.
Bark has been an amazing tool for me to use as a parent and educator. We have 4 children and I am constantly worried about what is being sent to them and shared within their friendship circle and beyond. The set up was relatively easy considering we have 4 children and multiple accounts. The information that I have received back from the app and have been alerted has allowed me to have courageous conversations with our children. It is not always them I am worried about. When you open your child up to 4 billion strangers, you have to have trust that they will make mistakes and that you will be there to guide them through them. Bark sends out a blog that allows me to keep up on the latest... Read More
terrible app. initially offered discount but then billed me full amount. doesnt track snapchat (HUGE NONO!) without some weird work around that the kids can skip. then, when i asked to cancel they do the "extension" thing, dont cancel and then billed me for a year! then when i disputed they fought with TONs of lawyer stuff - BEWARE NOT WORTH IT talk to your kids and discuss how these things work - in 2 years I never saw anything worth following up on. Just false peace of mind - its junk.
I signed up but it didn't track messages after the initial download for the next four days. A lot can happen in four days. Didn't get any real help from customer service. What they told me to do didn't work. Disappointing.
It takes 3 days to get an appointment for help. I don’t have time to wait that long.