In today's digital age, many parents are turning to parental control devices like Bark Phones to monitor their child's phone usage. But is Bark really effective? Find out more in this review.
Bark Phone Review: Is It the Best Safe Phone for Kids?
If you've landed on this page, you're probably wondering if Bark Parental Control Phones will work for your family.
We used the phones for 2 years when our children were in middle school; the most part, they were a good fit for us. But there were some things I didn't love about them, so I'm going to give you my honest take on what's good and bad about Bark.
Note: I've included links to the Bark phone on Amazon for your convenience. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Introduction to Bark Parental Control Phones
If you're a parent trying to figure out how to give your kid a phone without opening the floodgates to the entire internet, you’re not alone.
It’s a tough balance—we want our kids to stay connected with friends and family, but we also don’t want them glued to screens 24/7 or stumbling across things they shouldn’t see. That’s where the Bark Phone comes in.
Unlike a regular smartphone, the Bark Phone is designed specifically for kids' safety.
It comes with built-in parental controls, screen time limits, content monitoring, and even location tracking—all without the constant battle of checking their phone or worrying if they’ve found a way to turn off the settings.
Features of the Bark Phone
We probably didn't use all of the features that Bark offers, so I'm just going to list the ones that we found helpful:
- Approval of apps – With other phones, kids can download apps that could be harmful. With the Bark Phone, your child can send you an app request and you can either approve or decline the app. If an app isn't approved by you, it can't be downloaded to the Bark Phone.
- Time limits – You can set specific time limits or times of day that your child can use different types of apps. I liked that I could shut down the phones during the night so that the distraction of the phone wasn't interrupting sleep. We always keep our phones on a charging station at night, so this might have been overkill for us. But it was nice to know that the phones wouldn't be keeping anyone up. You can also disable the phone through the app if you need to.
- Location tracking – You can see the location of your child's phone from the Bark app that you'll install on your own device.
- You can go without web browsers – If you don't approve a web browser, your child will not have access to the internet. We started out with this so our kids could gradually get used to having a phone, and not feel so distracted. This was a good thing in the beginning, but after a while it was a huge stumbling block for us.
- You can turn off the internet to the phone.
Real Time Alerts for Potentially Harmful Content
If your child views any possibly harmful content, Bark will alert you.
When we first set up alerts, we got messages about even the smallest things.
Our kids had Gmail installed on their phones, and they'd get notifications of new videos posted by some of their favorite gaming YouTubers. As you can imagine, that sent up a lot of red flags for violent content!
You can adjust the level of monitoring and notifications you want to receive, so if you're getting too many notifications about minor things, you can change that.
Having customizable monitoring settings was super helpful.
Ability to Block Specific Apps and Websites
We did not use this feature, but you can block specific websites or apps.
We didn't use a web browser on the Bark Phones, but if we had, being able to block specific websites could potentially be helpful if there's one site that's problematic.
Cons of Using Bark
- I found the setup process confusing and slow. Honestly, I almost sent back the phones when we started out because it was so frustrating.
- The phones are slow to update settings. If we turned off access to the phones and then turned them back on, it would take a long time for the settings to change on our kid's phone.
- They weren't compatible with a lot of things our kids' teachers were using at school. If their teacher wanted them to use a new app, I had to approve it.
- Our kids were embarrassed by the phones. Even though they are nice Samsung phones, it's pretty obvious that they're parental control phones. If your kids are younger, this probably won't be an issue.
You may also like… The Weekly Reset: It's a gamechanger for busy moms!
Is the Bark Phone Too Invasive?
One of the things I liked the best about these phones is that they helped me keep my kids safe while respecting their privacy.
If I received an alert about potentially harmful content in a text message with from their friends, it didn't include the entire conversation. It just showed me the concerning content, and a few messages before and after for context.
Honestly most of the time, these alerts were totally overkill and I'd ignore them. If someone texted my child something about feeling sick, I'd get an alert about medically concerning content.
If something concerning did come up, I could have a conversation with my child about it, and that helped both of us learn!
If you're looking for something that will help you see absolutely everything your kid is doing on their phone, this isn't the solution for you.
I'm sure the Bark Phone won't catch all concerning content, but it does a pretty good job.
Related: The best age-appropriate chores for kids that build confidence.
Can Be Expensive
The pricing structure has changed since we first signed up for Bark, and I think it's more reasonable now.
But cost was definitely an issue for us.
I thought it was worth it to help our kids get a slower start with having a cell phone.
And it helped me learn about how to help my kids navigate the online world as a parent.
But I'm not gonna lie…I was really looking forward to graduating from our Bark Phones so we could lower our monthly cell service bills!
Conclusion: Is Bark A Good Parental Control Phone?
Yes! I'm glad we used the Bark Phones for a couple of years.
Bark keeps improving it's technology, and hopefully some of the things that frustrated me as a parent user have or will be fixed.
If you're hesitant about starting with cell phones, but your kids need a way to communicate with their family and friends, this is a solid option.
Go here to learn more about Bark Phones.
