Bark Parental Control App Review
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35 Customer Comments & 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.
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35 Customer Comments & Reviews
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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.
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