Parents with teenagers reach a point where their kids develop an interest in social media. When this time comes, it’s typically difficult to allow your child to navigate the social media world on their own, mainly because of the dangers they're exposed to.
That's where social monitoring apps come into play. Some parents feel more comfortable having their kids on social media when they can keep an eye on them. The Bark app is one of the apps that allow you to do that.
Here, we’ll take a closer look at the Bark app and how it works.
What Is Bark?
3 ImagesBark is a parental social monitoring app. It has parental control features that allow parents to provide safety for their children online. These control features include content monitoring, website blocking, screen time management, and location sharing.
Social media apps have raised safety concerns regarding children online. Thus, parents resort to monitoring apps like Bark to help them ensure that their kids aren't at risk.
This app must be installed on both the parent's and child's devices to function.
Download: Bark for Android | iOS (Free, Available In-App Purchases)
Monitoring
Bark’s monitoring feature allows parents to follow their children’s online activity and receive potential alerts on concerns such as bullying, self-harm, depression, online predators grooming children, violent threats, and general threats to safety. Bark also monitors texts, emails, videos, photos, and various apps.
The social monitoring app does not give parents access to all of their children’s messages; instead, it alerts parents on any concerning content detected. If an issue is detected in a text message on a child’s device, the parent will receive an alert based on the context of the specific text instead of viewing every single message.
Screen Time and Web Filtering
Parents have the chance to set healthy limits for their children by creating a schedule for their online activities. In addition, parents can set schedules for what sites and apps can be used at what times.
The app has customizable filters with 19 different website categories to choose from. If there are specific categories that parents don’t want their children to access, they can filter them out.
Parents can also block specific websites to restrict children from accessing them. In cases where a child tries to enter a blocked website, the app will send an alert to the monitoring device.
Location Sharing
The location-sharing tool in Bark allows parents to keep track of their children’s whereabouts. The app sends alerts as soon as a child arrives or leaves a location that has been on the app.
The app also has a check-in feature, where children can confirm their arrival at a location by tapping the check-in button on their device. When a parent might be worried about their child’s whereabouts, parents can also send a request on the app for their child to check in.
However, when the location sharing feature is enabled, the parent will receive a notification as soon as a child arrives at a location. For this feature to work, the child's device must either be connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data. In addition, they must enable location services on their device.
Monitoring Children Online
Keeping children away from their phones is almost impossible. Due to social norms, children might end up having a few apps on their phone that they enjoy, and while it’s easier to believe that social media is all bad, there are some positives that children could benefit from.
The key is having parents active and participating in their children’s social lives. Now that you know what Bark is, you can decide whether it’s the right social monitoring app for you. If not, there are other options to choose from.
