I'm 16 and my parents have always been strict. Back in December of 2024, I got grounded because they found out I was talking bad about them to a friend. They found this out because they constantly checked my PC for messages. It sucked and they grounded me for almost an entire year. In the latest end of 2025, I got a phone (first time ever) since I got a job. Instead of just letting me have a phone like a normal person, they put Bark on my phone. I immediately realized that this thing was more than a normal parental control app. It has basic functions such as blocking websites, controlling apps, and controling when you can use the device. I have no issue with this BUT I have a HUGE issue with it's monitoring feature. It works by monitoring your screen 24/7 and using it's ai to scan every bit of text or picture. This was a huge issue because it's so sensitive. Curse words? Reports entire text convo. Make an edgy joke? Reported and probably comes with a conversation from your parents. Mention that your friend is sick with a cold? It reports that too! It reports much more than this too, and it's spyware.
One day I was texting a friend, and we were extra careful with our texts. It was to no use because even without cursing it still reports the messages. It will literally find one message it seems wrong, then uses that as an excuse to report the ENTIRE CONVERSATION! On that day, my parents sat me down for an hour and were highly stressed over our jokes. I was forced to block my good friend and many others, all because of this app sharing this information to my over strict parents.
You can't lower the sensitivity either. It is either on baby mode or not on at all. There should be a menu or something that has a list of what is reported and what isn't, along with a toggle button.
The worse part is what I mentioned a second ago: it reports one message THEN the rest of a conversation. I've even seen it do this one thing a couple of times where it stitches together random messages from all kinds of time spans together to form a bad looking conversation. I'm not making this stuff up, it's happened at least twice.
One more issue with this app is that it tends to say everything is said by your kid. Say there's a wild comment on Instagram or a message in a discord server, it's reported as if YOU typed it out. Don't even ask me how many times this got me in trouble.
Overall this app is garbage- and it doesn't even do its job properly! After a few months of continuous use it will randomly stop working. Good for me but bad for my parents because they then are paying for something that doesn't work. I overall hate this app and want it gone.
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Bark gives families a complete set of parental control tools to help navigate the digital world safely. From monitoring online content and managing screen time to filtering websites and tracking location, Bark provides comprehensive protection across devices.
Whether through our award-winning app, the Bark Phone, or the Bark Watch, we empower parents with the tools they need for peace of mind—both online and in real life.
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