Are you worried about your children on the internet? I am too. As much as I try to look over their shoulders I think it’s important to have another way to monitor what they are looking at because I do realize I can’t always look over their shoulders and will miss things. Raising children today is so challenging and the main culprit is the internet.
Bark helps keep children safe from issues like cyberbullying, online predators, adult content, depression, acts of violence, suicidal ideation, and more. Launched in 2015, Bark began with its flagship product for families. This award-winning service monitors text messages, emails, YouTube, and 24+ social media platforms for online threats, sending timely alerts to families when it detects potential issues. Today there are even apps kids are on that the parent may not know of
My children enjoy watching videos on YouTube, and while a lot can be helpful and interesting there could be one that slips in that may not be appropriate, maybe it’s the language or even the messaging, luckily Bark will detect that for you! I set both my kids accounts up, and woke up to a few things I needed to look over. I was able to easily access what my son watched to get these potential issues to review. Luckily it wasn’t anything serious, he was watching Roblox videos and it detected “violence”.
This is a great opportunity for me to talk to him about what he is watching and discuss whether or not I think it’s appropriate for him.
 |
With my daughter, she is in her preteen years, which is scary in itself for me. She doesn’t have a phone although there are some children at this age that do. She does, however, have an iPod which we kind of treat as a phone because she can message me using the internet and she loves watching videos. Before we had Bark installed she was very into watching TikTok, and I do have to admit it was pretty entertaining. I would also be sitting next to her or looking over her should trying to monitor what she was watching. After I heard a few too many curse words I asked her to delete the app. I may let her reinstall it now that we have Bark monitoring our social media because I can see exactly what is being watched.
Once again I trust her decisions however I don’t trust what videos are mixed in with kid’s videos. You just never know what you’ll find. So with her analysis from Bark, there were a lot more things I needed to go over. Luckily they were all good, a few of them were tagged for things that were perfectly harmless, like a picture of hugging (of my kids) it picked it up as inappropriate. But that’s ok, I’m ok with it being a little overly cautious, I have it set to the highest settings, you can adjust that on the very easy to use settings. There were a couple things about bullying but those were actually my pictures I tagged her for Anti-bullying day.
However, there were a few tags for cartoons she was watching one was for “violence” and I was able to watch them on the Bark App when logged into our account. They were ok but glad it gave me an opportunity to talk to her about them and we will work together to find some better choices of cartoons to watch.
 |
A few things that also help me to monitor what my kids are watching is having the computer in the kitchen area so it’s out in the open and if they want to watch something I can see it too. I try to keep them near me when on the internet so I can monitor them. I don’t allow computers to stay in their rooms, I may be a little strict but I just want to keep them safe.
There is so much great information from Bark about bullying and even a forum from other parents in the community on ways to keep the kids safe. This is so important especially now that it seems almost everything and everyone is on the internet, it’s literally at our fingertips.
The customer service is great, I had a few questions and Bark customer service was able to help me quickly and with super friendly. They made sure all my questions were answered.
There are a few ways you can reach someone:
 |
As I learned more about Bark and its products I discovered they have a similar monitoring solution for schools. After the tragic shooting in Parkland Florida, Bark decided to extend it's suite of online safety services to all K-12 public and private schools in the U.S. at no cost to them or their communities. As a parent, watching the news from Parkland unfold absolutely broke my heart. This is a school about 10 minutes from where we lived, and from where my husband grew up, this is the school he graduated from, it's a very safe community. This goes to show you that it can happen anywhere. Offering content monitoring, web filtering, and a Parent Portal for after-hours alerts, Bark for Schools is trusted by more than 1,400 school districts to help protect their students from digital dangers.
Bark for Schools offers content monitoring, web filtering, and a Parent Portal for after-hours alerts and is trusted by more than 1,500 school districts to help protect their students from digital dangers. Just like it's product for families, Bark's award-winning technology monitors school email accounts, G Suite apps, Microsoft Office 365 apps, and school-issued Chromebooks for signs of cyberbullying, school shooting threats, suicidal ideation, and other potentially harmful issues. In partnership with parents and schools, Bark has helped protect 4 million children, prevent 16 school shootings and detect 21 thousand severe self-harm situations, how amazing is that?!
The Bark team offers Bark for Schools at no cost as a way to give back to communities and help keep our kids safer. This is huge, so important to help keep our kids safe from dangerous threats.
More Info Here.
In partnership with parents and schools, Bark has helped protect 3.6 million children, prevent 16 school shootings, and detect 20 thousand severe self-harm situations, how amazing is that!?
Bark's pricing is simple. No questions to ask, no extra tiers. Everything's included for one simple price. Click here for pricing information and to start your FREE trial!
Check them out on Facebook: @barktechnologies Instagram: @barktechnologies & Twitter: @barktechco
This is a sponsored post, the views expressed are completely my own.
