Confusing setup
Cumbersome and not user friendly to set up safari monitoring. It would not recognize my daughters device even though all settings are proper.
You also have to utilize either a desktop app that needs to remain on and connected to WiFi, or a separate monitoring peripheral that you must purchase. None of this info is clear until after you agree to a subscription service.
Extremely disappointing and frustrating.
You also have to utilize either a desktop app that needs to remain on and connected to WiFi, or a separate monitoring peripheral that you must purchase. None of this info is clear until after you agree to a subscription service.
Extremely disappointing and frustrating.
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As a teen with this app
Many teens review this app to complain about their privacy being violated by their parents. I’m not here to do that. I’m glad my parents care about my safety, and it honestly hasn’t changed our relationship like some others. I don’t mind giving up some privacy in exchange for safety. What I dont appreciate however is the insane amount of glitches when connected to the “bark box.” When at home, the amazing wifi my family pays extra for just does not work on a phone connected to barks system. Apps don’t work even when my parents have no restrictions set in place, i can’t open photos anybody sends me, and I have to reset my phone everyday just for a few minutes of working internet. Like I said, my parents have no time restrictions on my apps, it’s just my phone being extremely slow because of the bark app. My parents have expressed how frustrated it makes them multiple times to bark representatives, and they have not given us a solid answer other than “reset the phone” which only works around 4/10 times…very disappointing and irritating for both me and my parents.
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Garbage parental control
Depends on a vpn functionality. Child goes into setting and turns off vpn and there goes the barks app purposes. What a gimmick of an app. There way of handling that is to explain to child how important it is for parents to disrupt child’s usage of the device.
It is bad
It is terrible
not smart
this app said that a livestream on youtube from my CHURCH was violent and got flagged. it was about the fruits of repentance and said something about how they killed someone. it was a church service. why can i not watch church.
Truly awful
Bark’s ability to understand the context of absolutely ANY text conversation is truly terrible. They’re obviously keying off keywords only. Zero contextual understanding. Same for videos. Kids at a school dance? Sexual content. And bullying. Contact name of “Momma,” obviously a risky contact according to Bark. “Does this boy like me?” Well again that’s obviously bullying. Someone have a headache and mentioned in a text? Call 911 people. It’s medically concerning high alert. Even if all that wasn’t a problem, the laptop and phone agent almost never sync when on the same network. You have to plug the phone in for at least 45 min to do the analysis. If you ever want it. Horrendous app.
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Bark is my hero
Bark may have just prevented me from loosing my daughter to self harm. It is a normal Friday night and I’m used to seeing alerts from bark about her YouTube subscriptions and Spotify music but when I got the notification (urgent alert) and saw images of self harm it gave my wife and I a chance to intervene in a situation we may have been otherwise unaware of. I will suggest bark to other parents with my last breath.
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Worst billing ever
I have had this service for going on 3 years. We bought phones for our daughters through their website. It worked for maybe six months and now EVERY SINGLE MONTH my card is declined and locked for fraud…I have to fight with bark every single month to get the payment approved. It’s the most frustrating thing I have ever encountered. Cancelling service and never using this again. I can’t even get customer service to talk to me to get the issue resolved this time. It doesn’t even send correct notifications or even information in real time. Just buy an iPhone and use parental controls. It’s better, more efficient and you can do all of the same things.
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GREAT!!
So, i had downloaded the app for me and my daughter so i could keep her safe. It had alerted me about some vulgar texts, yadda yadda. She has been doing better lately(from what i have seen.) she just went out with her friends, she even brought a rope so she could swing from a tree!!! I hope she is having fun. Highly recommend this app!!
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Ruins the relationship between parents and kids
every single thing you say gets documented to your parents. called my friend dumb jokingly and it said i was a cyberbully. this is an invasion of privacy and parents if you are wanting to get this for your kid, think twice because this is how you wind up in a nursing home. I made a private note on my phone to vent my feelings and i got grounded for writing that i was angry at my parents. bark reported a locked note to them.
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Glitchy
There is a red 1 on the home button that never goes away no matter what I do.
Not Easy
Installed the app, but can’t even get past the subscription screen. Keeps circling back to this
too controlling
its soooooooooooooooooo controlling dont get it. its also super hard to delete
Unable to access app or support
I have been using this app for my teenager for the past few years. For the past few days, I haven't been able to access the app or contact support. I click on the app, and within a few seconds. Takes me out of the request.
Confusing and doesn’t work
This app is not intuitive. It blocks when I don’t want and allows when I don’t want it to. The schedules are confusing. I think they purposely keep it trash to encourage you to buy the hardware
Decent, but could be better
The basic functionality and the data provided is useful. However, I wish the app offered a more stripped down and basic skin option without all of the cutesy stuff. Another issue that I occasionally encounter notification badges that will not go away.
Before getting your kids this app read this please
Hi my names Ari I’m 12 years old my parents force me to have this app on my phone for about 2 years it’s absolutely ruined my mental health and has caused me to lose my trust for my parents I understand how you would have this for 10 and younger but once middle school starts just check your kids phone this app has isolated me from friends who I trust with yummy life I can do anything it’s so strict it detects that everything is a problem and is so strict like what do you mean I can’t get on any websites like amozan or SHEIN on safari I don’t even have money to buy anything and this app has actually made me want to commute Su!c!de multiple times and every time I get better that parent controls bring everything down again I have completely lost the good relationship I had with my parents and trust for them
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Doesn’t work; especially if you have a tech savvy kid
My 16yo showed me not 1, not 2, but 3 different ways he could disable bark from his phone in less than 5 mins…and not a single one notified me that that app was not working. He actually asked for the bark phone because he’s that confident he can bypass the settings on that too! He said the best security feature he’s seen so far is the Apple parental controls. *** he plans on posting videos on YouTube on why “bark is garbage” soon, and how he got around it**including their phone once he gets his hands on it 🤦🏻♀️
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Can’t find any of my devices
Hard set up. Still struggling. Cant locate anything
Disappointing experience
I had a very disappointing experience with this company and would not recommend them.
The software itself has been unreliable. It frequently lags, and one of the main reasons for buying a kids’ smartwatch—being able to see your child’s live location—doesn’t work properly most of the time. The previous watch we had from them also used to ring randomly for no apparent reason.
On top of these technical problems, I returned the watch in good condition, but the company later charged me claiming that it was broken. To the best of my knowledge, there was no damage to the watch when I packaged and returned it.
Overall, I’m very unhappy with both the product quality and the way the return was handled. Based on my experience, I would be very cautious about buying from this company.
The software itself has been unreliable. It frequently lags, and one of the main reasons for buying a kids’ smartwatch—being able to see your child’s live location—doesn’t work properly most of the time. The previous watch we had from them also used to ring randomly for no apparent reason.
On top of these technical problems, I returned the watch in good condition, but the company later charged me claiming that it was broken. To the best of my knowledge, there was no damage to the watch when I packaged and returned it.
Overall, I’m very unhappy with both the product quality and the way the return was handled. Based on my experience, I would be very cautious about buying from this company.
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