# Bark Kids — user reviews > 744 indexed App Store user reviews of Bark Kids by Bark Technologies, Inc., rated 1.30/5 from 9,335 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bark-kids/id1500629600/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bark-kids/id1500629600.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 448 · 4★ 157 · 3★ 207 · 2★ 269 · 1★ 8,254 ## What do users think of Bark Kids? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 👍 Helps keep kids safe - 🚀 Effective at monitoring online activity - 🔒 Provides parental control and oversight **Cons** - 🔍 Excessive invasion of privacy - 🤖 Overly sensitive alerts and false positives - 🔌 Negatively impacts device performance and connectivity - 💔 Damages trust and relationship with parents - 😞 Restricts teen freedom and independence **Commonly reported bugs** - Persistent VPN issues causing internet connectivity problems - Incompatibility with certain apps and device functionality **Most requested features** - More customizable alert settings - Improved filtering and classification of content - Better integration with family devices and accounts - Gradual relaxation of restrictions as child matures ## Newest reviews (18 of 744) ### 3/5 — Bark review *2026-08-05, version 5.0.0* Ok so I have bark on my phone for parent controls it’s great at monitoring but the only thing is that it glitches like some apps I can’t open like SHEIN and CapCut and it also sometimes won’t turn my phone off at the bedtime please fix this ### 3/5 — Perspective of a 13-year-old *2026-08-05, version 5.0.0* It does keep me safe and helps my parents know my location and what I do with my phone and my browsing but there is a couple of bad things I can’t figure out how to delete it and also it cuts out my Internet connection so I really can’t do anything but overall very good for child safety ### 4/5 — Kinda iffy but still works *2026-08-02, version 5.0.0* (14 almost 15 yo male perspective) So basically I was using it out of my home state and the von thing just kept turning off and on and it wouldn’t let me do anything. So my dad un-installed the app for like a week and in that week my phone had really fast internet, didn’t glitch, and my phone basically had none of the problem it had before. I think that the bark app affected the phones internet and stuff but it still does the job really well. One star off for the vpn thingy though ### 4/5 — awesome sauce app :) *2026-07-29, version 5.0.0* i wrote the LONGEST paragraph ever and then i ran outta screen time and got kicked off the app store so then my parents approved more screen time so here i am rewriting all of this ._. i dont wanna go into full detail like i did before, but ive gone through a lot of phones and tablets, then getting them taken away for different reasons. im not even a bad kid, my parents just dont trust the internet, and apparently me having autism and adhd makes it so i "cant handle tech" like ummm ok- anygays i somehow convinced my parents to let me get an iphone with bark. i really love it because my old phone was a super locked down android with only texting and photos. i got it taken away because of the unholy amount of suicide notes sent by my friends 0.0 (dont come for me theyre getting help i swear) anywho this was the only way id be allowed to get an iphone, and i love it so much more than that FREAKING ANDROID WISEPHONE >:((((( (i did not like my old phone as u can tell) with bark, i can text my friends, do things online, watch videos, and even play games so i can maybe fit in to that one weird kid group and be friends with that one certian human because theyre so much cooler than me and theyre so interesting *coughcoughcough* yup! i can do almost anything i want and my parents get notified for anything concerning. with bark i feel like i can really be responsible, because with other locked down phones i cant even use gmail (like erm whaaaat???) the only reason its not 5 stars is because my bark thingy stopped working ._. i do think ill be able to get it working again soon, but the fact that it wont even scan is really annoying because if it doesnt ever work then my parents will take my phone away and ill be phoneless 😔😔 anygays sorry for the long paragraph :) also all the other reviews are hillarious :D dont listen to them theyre just kids who want to watch porn all day 0_0 and one last thing: i bought my phone refurbished off of amazon. its good enough quality AND ITS PURPLE ehem anyways as soon as i downloaded bark, some things were a bit slower. this could 100% be because my phone was refurbished and used by someone, and i js didnt notice the lag until after i downloaded bark which was only a few hours later, but reading all the reviews on both the kids side and parents side of the app, it seems like bark slows the phone down a bit. it doesnt bother me all too much, because in reality im only 13 and i dont need an amazing phone anyways, but there are just a few things about bark that just dont work as smoothly as they could. whatever the case, im grateful for bark and im ACTUALLY gonna stop writing now lol :) baiii- ### 1/5 — Unable to access the internet *2026-07-28, version 5.0.0* Can’t have WiFi or cellular data ### 1/5 — No *2026-07-25, version 5.0.0* Literally the worst app ever? I’m always being watched by my parents and I hate it. From parent’s perspective it’s awesome but if you’re a teen who just wants to live, it’s not. I’m suffocating. My patents made me break up with my gf bc of it, and I’m loosing all of my friends and I’m just alone right now. ### 3/5 — Idk *2026-07-25, version 5.0.0* well i have bark and im 14, i think bark is a great app for parents to use to keep a eye on their kids but my parents have forgotten their password, im now a freshman and now im allowed to have social media but the bark app doesn’t let me get them even though i got the apps approved on app store, maybe fix this? ### 1/5 — More like Kim Jong Un controlling me *2026-07-25, version 5.0.0* Kids need freedom ### 2/5 — Oh dear god. *2026-07-24, version 5.0.0* This app is so glitchy and the reason why it’s because they made it into malware and iPhones don’t allow viruses and malware on their phone and they do that on purpose so you have to go and buy their bark phone for your kid to have no privacy. you can have control over everything and that’s not a good thing. Coming from someone who had this. ### 2/5 — not the best but i understand *2026-07-24, version 5.0.0* i’ve had this app ever since I got my phone and let me tell you it was the worst two years of my life! It flags you for talking about allergies!! it made all my apps glitchy and I’m so glad I got rid of it!!!! ### 1/5 — Worst app *2026-07-23, version 5.0.0* The worst app of all time. This app causes many problems. 1. You can’t delete apps. If you decide you don’t want an app; to bad. 2. If you have perfect internet/cellular, it will be so slow. Slower than if you were in a desert. DO NOT DOWNLOAD! This app causes your phone to be like a 🇰🇵North Korea phone🇰🇵. Watches everything, reads everything, and sucks. Save your time and money by just using downtime rules. When you leave a review, there is some creep that comments back to the reviews.!!!GET A LIFE!!! also, PLEASE IGNORE ALL POSITIVE REVIEWS. ### 1/5 — Idk *2026-07-23, version 5.0.0* This is cool I guess caught me ahhhhhhhhj ### 1/5 — are you a parent who wants your kids to stay in contact with you when they’re adults? read this! *2026-07-23, version 5.0.0* parents, if you want a loving, trusting relationship with your child, take some advice from somebody who grew up with bark & will be an adult soon. this app is extremely invasive in every way. yes, it’s important to protect your children on the internet, especially if they are younger, but this app takes it to the extreme. it’s not protection, it’s an invasion of privacy. almost every single app i had was blocked.. even amazon? i could only use imessage. but even imessage was monitored, as it showed my parents every single text i sent and received. i had almost ZERO friends in middle school because of this. people stopped talking to me because they knew my parents would see every single text they sent. not only was this app terribly invasive, but it KILLED my phone. first, the VPN didn’t let me have any cellular data, so i couldn’t message my parents if i were anywhere without wifi. this resulted in me being left at school for hours after it was over because i couldn’t contact my dad to pick me up. wanna know the worst part? my phone progressively got laggier and stopped working with time as i had this app, and eventually, my phone shut off at full battery and never turned on again! hundreds of dollars down the drain. it took that for my parents to realize that this app is pointless spyware / malware. this app only made me more depressed and made me rebel more after i was free from it. there are so many better ways to protect your child online while keeping their trust. talk to them, teach them about the importance of internet safety, even use the built in parental controls on their phones. ### 1/5 — Should be considered crime against fun in humanity *2026-07-23, version 5.0.0* The most buggy disgusting putrid awful gut-wrenchingly terrible app that has ever touched the App Store. Complete obvious spyware. Cash cow for the devs of the phone. This app needs to bury in the fiery depths of brutal never ending hell. ### 1/5 — ??? *2026-07-21, version 5.0.0* Why was a I flagged for violence when i was watching wwe and ufc highlights on youtube? i'm confused 😕 ### 1/5 — Horrible app *2026-07-20, version 5.0.0* It keeps saying I (13 year old girl) keep going on inappropriate cites and it’s happened more than 5 times and I am sick of my parents saying why do you go on the cites and I would never go on those cites and it blocks everything like if I search up like let’s say target.com it says it blocked and it watches everything and it’s just a way to loose your child’s trust ### 3/5 — It does its job, BUT… *2026-07-19, version 5.0.0* Coming from a 13 year olds perspective, this can be very helpful but also incredibly frustrating. It blocks comments all together instead of just the inappropriate ones, it makes high content games like Roblox lag horribly, and also makes it so that during free time (when everything is supposedly unblocked) YouTube doesn’t work. We fixed that by telling the ai helper specifically to unblock YouTube and after a few times it worked. ### 1/5 — Bark *2026-07-19, version 5.0.0* Horrible app ruins time doesn’t work please don’t download! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Parents, don’t use this app. *2026-08-07, version 5.0.0* It takes forever to load videos or pictures now and even if it does load it’s bad quality, this app makes your phone so slow. And you can’t turn it off without parent permission obv. ### 1/5 — Worst app *2026-08-07, version 5.0.0* The worst app of all time. This app causes many problems. 1. You can’t delete apps. If you decide you don’t want an app; to bad. 2. If you have perfect internet/cellular, it will be so slow. Slower than if you were in a desert. DO NOT DOWNLOAD! This app causes your phone to be like a 🇰🇵North Korea phone🇰🇵. Watches everything, reads everything, and sucks. Save your time and money by just using downtime rules. When you leave a review, there is some creep that comments back to the reviews.!!!GET A LIFE!!! also, PLEASE IGNORE ALL POSITIVE REVIEWS. EDIT: after I left this review, my phone ran even slower ### 1/5 — This app is useless *2026-08-05, version 5.0.0* Me and my sister have this stupid app and we both have had lots of instances were our internet would be terrible for days and my dad wasn’t able to find out what it was until I suggested this app and after a few more day he sorted it out and it has been that bad again but another thing I hate about this app is that each week that ask you a question and it makes your clock blue and it probably hasn’t gotten annoying for most of y’all, but it’s probably for some of yall ### 1/5 — Just..why? *2026-08-03, version 5.0.0* So, i like texting my friends, but for some reason on the gcs (group chats) it confuses which person is me and my friends, furthermore the AI moderation is just.. so dumb, i was in a contest, and my best friend asked who won, i said “idk some random dude” and the AI thought i was talking to a random person (who is in fact: my best friend). Also the AI is like: physically incapable of understanding internet slang, i said to my friend on the gc “R.I.P, 🥀” cuz they lost in a video game, then the AI counted that as suicidal behavior! Why?! Also remember when i was talking about the contest? Well that was a video game making contest (i lost, but it was fun) anyway i sent a screenshot of my game, and gave my friends the link to the game and the AI thought i was being asked to give nsfw pics and vids for a game link *insert face palm here* ### 1/5 — DONT GET THIS *2026-08-02, version 5.0.0* IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR KID DONT INSTALL THIS APP ITS SPYWARE. I TRUSTED BARK TO PROTECT ME , BUT NO ITS SPYWARE, AS A CHILD I TRUSTED THIS APP TO PROTECT ME AND IT TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THAT. ### 1/5 — Spotify does not work *2026-08-01, version 5.0.0* This app is overall a great idea. However, it eliminates the ability to have privacy, and a huge issue is that it doesn’t seem to work with Spotify. Every time I open/use the Spotify app, the VPN repeatedly turns off and on, and continues to do so for a while after. It stops my phone from working. Again, great concept, not well designed. ### 1/5 — Finally aged out of this app🫡 *2026-07-30, version 5.0.0* After 3 years, I am finally freed of this awful app. It bricked so many apps on multiple occasions, sent false alerts, and was just trash. Godspeed the rest of you who have this. If you are a parent getting a child their first phone, try gabb instead. Godspeed the rest of you on your journey.🫡 ### 1/5 — Not going to say what other people do *2026-07-29, version 5.0.0* Listen I am not going to say it sucks or it’s a invasion of privacy cause that’s not ur fault others our parents but I will say it takes forever to use the con sucks it takes forever for my mom to use or see anything and it’ll flag stuff that isn’t bad and the sensitivity setting don’t work and it’ll do it not in real time but in batches and it makes things seem worse than they are and it takes hours and days to set up and u have to plug ur phone into the computer for hours every week just to reconnect it all the time and the kids should get to see what they r doing wrong but the kids side of the app is so boring it should show what it says they think they have done wrong and maybe waht ur doing is good in theory but this app has ruined my relationship with my mom because of how she tells about how hard it is to use and doesn’t even do a good job so no don’t get it also ya it SUCKS ### 1/5 — ZERO STARS IF I COULD *2026-07-28, version 5.0.0* Ok so my phone is working perfectly fine AND THEN OUT OF NOWHERE MY PHONE IS BEING STUPID and won’t load anything my downloaded stuff wouldn’t load either and I’m top of that IT LASTS WEEKS SOMETIMES!!!.!.!.!.!.!.!. And it drains my battery so much at times wants to ### 1/5 — This sucks *2026-07-28, version 5.0.0* So I wouldn’t let me have WiFi on games so Yh ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great for sneaky and deliberate disobedience *2026-07-31, version 5.0.0* This is for my parents who are actually great parents, discipline within reason and are involved with your children. This is also for those of you who are minors and are deliberately disobedient, sneaky and untrustworthy. Don’t do things that would this app be required. Period. Because when you carry that behavior into adult hood, it’s down hill for you and your parents nor an app can keep you safe. ### 5/5 — So great *2026-07-22, version 5.0.0* I love being able to invade my child’s privacy and limit their Screen Time. It’s been so great. He’s even learned new hobbies like I saw him taking the rope up to his room and use it to tie a knot or something like that. He hasn’t came out since I hope he’s just having fun in there 👍 ### 5/5 — EXTREMELY HELPFUL *2026-07-16, version 5.0.0* So.. I have been very Addicted to inappropriate things and this app HANDS DOWN has been the BEST app my parents have downloaded for me, it’s made me not addicted to things on my phone, helped me get closer to God, and even helped me not be on my phone as much, before this app, my screen time (tells me how long I’ve been on my phone) it was…. And I’m NOT proud of this…. 10 hours as the daily average.. yeah I know! Crazy right? But ever since this app it’s been an hour or lower and I’m so proud of myself and my parents for getting this app for me so thank you Bark.. thank you for making this app 🤍 5 STARS!!!!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ### 5/5 — To all of the bootlickers and developers *2026-07-09, version 5.0.0* Bark was made to protect kids, and now more than ever kids safety is at risk. Because of bark kids cannot properly vent to friends and talk to them. Bark is isolating children which causes depression in many cases. If and when the parent puts their foot down and says they can’t talk to them friends they have left the kid is EXTREME DANGER. Depression is not a joke. Not only that but bark also seems to flag any and all lgbtq content as “extremely sexual content” I don’t think this is a mistake. I think this a direct attack on the lgbtq and queer community. I swear to god if one of the developers is reading this, YOU are responsible for dead kids. I hope anyone of you bark bootlickers can also see that. This isnt protecting kids, it’s spyware. And it’s responsible for real children killing themselves. ### 5/5 — From a 15 year olds perspective *2026-07-04, version 5.0.0* Hi! I am a teenager who’s phone is monitored by the app Bark Kids, I understand the concept of this app which is to help parents monitor and protect their child’s safety, I think thats great, I feel like parents should be able to protect their children with the well-being that their kids are safe and doing the right things on their phone. I honestly think this app is good for many kids my age and can really help from getting them into tough situations online and on social media. My only concern is that I just feel like I can’t have my own privacy. I feel like I can’t do anything without my parents watching my every move, and I feel judged and nervous about everything that I text or see online, which is probably a good thing but like me and most kids my age we don’t want to admit that because we want to feel independent and like we can do things on our own and be trusted. And I know not all kids can be trusted so easily online but I feel like this app in general for me makes me feel like I don’t have a lot of privacy. Bark also does mess with my internet a lot and it takes a while to get on any apps. But in my honest opinion I am a little bit grateful for this app because I know it has definitely helped many parents maintain their child’s safety by not letting them have free rein to see everything or send any text message they want. I know it has also helped me maybe think twice before saying something in messages, and has helped made me become a lot more honest. Also if any parents reads this and has seen all the other terrible reviews written by teens, they are just really insecure and are venting because they got caught for what they were really doing on their phones. (I know im not really any better because I also kind of vented) but I really do think this app is good for all kids with phones. In a way I think it would also be nice to maybe make acceptions when having this app and giving them a little bit of privacy. (I mean like maybe not getting angry or upset about every small thing that gets flagged: like a misinterpreted joke or song that said a bad word) ### 5/5 — Deserves the one star *2026-06-19, version 5.0.0* Bark kids is so incredibly bad. I can barely even use any apps and I hope it gets taken down.🫩🔴🔵🤌🫴🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 ### 5/5 — Help I beg. Don NOT get this for your kid! *2026-06-15, version 5.0.0* This app has not worked for my parents at all, it is impossible to navigate and all it does for them and me is invade my privacy it makes my parents be able to spy on me, see my texts messages, and see what I’m searching up. And I understand that they are just trying to protect me but that has just crossed the line. I cannot believe that some one has made this app to let parents invade their kids, to see what they are doing at all times. So shame on you for that. I say to them “get out of my business” and I know that that is a bit rude but it is just the truth. But parents don’t make your kids feel like someone is always spying on them all the time, because that is how I feel. I understand why you are just trying to protect your kid but my mom says to my little siblings “is it helpful not hurtful” (this app is hurtful) All in All I understand why you would like to protect your kid but make sure that it isn’t crossing the line, and this app is crossing the line from protecting to invading or spying. And adding on to that the blacking stuff I’m fine with you should be able to protect your kid from stuff that you don’t want them to “watch” or send Which is great for someone that is like 9 to 12, and if you do do that than you are just wishing on your downfall. And the app does send notification very well but I still hate the app it has made my child hood much much worse always making me look over my shoulder/phone😭🥀 Let kids have fun don’t confined them in a small space where they can’t go out they can’t have fun and they can’t do stuff that a normal kid would do. it is good that it blocks inappropriate stuff which I’m glad it did when I had my little phase, but that’s all that I wanted to do. I don’t want it to ruin my childhood. And hurt me I tried having this conversation with my parents and they just said that they would take away my phone. If I keep complaining, they say it’s supposed to keep me safe, but I say all it’s doing is trapping me in an endless loop of spying. Also whenever I curse or my friends curse in a group chat, then it sends a notification to my parents🥀😭 It says that it’s bullying that’s happened to me many times so I genuinely think that the owner of this App is a random old man that has no kids and no life so I don’t really think that he knows what goes on in a 13 year-old group chat with all my friends✌️😭 if you Know you know P.S: developer responses are fake. I think they’re just AI because I feel like it all just says the same things it’s I’m telling you just AI and if it isn’t then well respond saying something genuine. And don’t sound like a robot cause I just know you’re AI. If you read all of this kids you understand me I get why your parents are trying to keep you safe but keeping you safe doesn’t mean ruining your childhood maybe just go through your phone instead of always keeping tabs on you to see what you’re always doing. ### 5/5 — Help I beg. Don NOT get this for your kid! *2026-06-12, version 5.0.0* This app has not worked for my parents at all, it is impossible to navigate and all it does for them and me is invade my privacy it makes my parents be able to spy on me, see my texts messages, and see what I’m searching up. And I understand that they are just trying to protect me but that has just crossed the line. I cannot believe that some one has made this app to let parents invade their kids, to see what they are doing at all times. So shame on you for that. I say to them “get out of my business” and I know that that is a bit rude but it is just the truth. But parents don’t make your kids feel like someone is always spying on them all the time, because that is how I feel. I understand why you are just trying to protect your kid but my mom says to my little siblings “is it helpful not hurtful” (this app is hurtful) All in All I understand why you would like to protect your kid but make sure that it isn’t crossing the line, and this app is crossing the line from protecting to invading or spying. And adding on to that the blacking stuff I’m fine with you should be able to protect your kid from stuff that you don’t want them to “watch” or send Which is great for someone that is like 9 to 12, and if you do do that than you are just wishing on your downfall. And the app does send notification very well but I still hate the app it has made my child hood much much worse always making me look over my shoulder/phone😭🥀 Let kids have fun don’t confined them in a small space where they can’t go out they can’t have fun and they can’t do stuff that a normal kid would do. it is good that it blocks inappropriate stuff which I’m glad it did when I had my little phase, but that’s all that I wanted to do. I don’t want it to ruin my childhood. And hurt me I tried having this conversation with my parents and they just said that they would take away my phone. If I keep complaining, they say it’s supposed to keep me safe, but I say all it’s doing is trapping me in an endless loop of spying. Also whenever I curse or my friends curse in a group chat, then it sends a notification to my parents🥀😭 It says that it’s bullying that’s happened to me many times so I genuinely think that the owner of this App is a random old man that has no kids and no life so I don’t really think that he knows what goes on in a 13 year-old group chat with all my friends✌️😭 if you Know you know P.S: developer responses are fake. I think they’re just AI because I feel like it all just says the same things it’s I’m telling you just AI and if it isn’t then well respond saying something genuine. And don’t sound like a robot cause I just know you’re AI. I hate Bark. I hate Bark. I hate Bark. I hate Bark. I hate Bark If you read all of this kids you understand me I get why your parents are trying to keep you safe but keeping you safe doesn’t mean ruining your childhood maybe just go through your phone instead of always keeping tabs on you to see what you’re always doing. ### 5/5 — Loads of Loopholes *2026-06-01, version 4.53.0* 👍 ### 5/5 — 𝖡𝖺𝖽 𝗋𝖾𝗏𝗂𝖾𝗐𝗌 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝗄𝗂𝖽𝗌 *2026-05-17, version 4.49.1* 𝖯𝖺𝗋𝖾𝗇𝗍 𝗁𝖾𝗋𝖾 (𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝖺 𝗄𝗂𝖽 𝗉𝗋𝖾𝗍𝖾𝗇𝖽𝗂𝗇𝗀). 𝖫𝗈𝗈𝗄 𝖼𝗅𝗈𝗌𝖾𝗅𝗒, 𝟣 𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗋 𝗋𝖾𝗏𝗂𝖾𝗐𝗌 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝗄𝗂𝖽𝗌 𝗐𝗁𝗈 𝖽𝗈𝗇'𝗍 𝗅𝗂𝗄𝖾 𝗏𝗂𝗈𝗅𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇 𝗈𝖿 𝗉𝗋𝗂𝗏𝖺𝖼𝗒. 𝖱𝖾𝗌𝗉𝖾𝖼𝗍, 𝖻𝗎𝗍 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍'𝗌 𝖻𝖾𝗍𝗐𝖾𝖾𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗆 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗂𝗋 𝗉𝖺𝗋𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗌. 𝖨 𝖺𝗉𝗉𝗋𝖾𝖼𝗂𝖺𝗍𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝖺𝗉𝗉 𝗌𝗍𝗋𝗂𝗄𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝗂𝗆𝗉𝖾𝗋𝖿𝖾𝖼𝗍 𝖻𝖺𝗅𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾. 𝖨 𝗃𝗎𝗌𝗍 𝗌𝖾𝗍𝗎𝗉 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖡𝖺𝗋𝗄 𝖲𝗒𝗇𝖼 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗂𝗍 𝗐𝗈𝗋𝗄𝗌 𝗉𝖾𝗋𝖿𝖾𝖼𝗍𝗅𝗒 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-26.*