Bark Phone Review: What Users Are Saying

Bark Phone Customer Reviews

Positive (5-star reviews from satisfied parents):

I have the Bark phone for my daughter. It is AMAZING. I can’t recommend it enough. You can change the parental controls as they grow also, which I love. It monitors texts, pictures, browsing, apps, etc. It has an option you can pause their phone, so they can’t use it at times you deem necessary. The bark app is good- but nothing like the phone. With the app, there’s loopholes and ways around it. The phone, there’s not. There’s no way to turn it off, or delete it. Seriously, I love it!

I started out with just the Bark app, but I eventually switched to the Bark Phone for my son who is almost 11. It’s been so much easier to manage. The phone has everything built in, so I don’t have to worry about settings syncing or something slipping through on another device. I really like that it gives me full control over contacts, screen time limits, and what apps are allowed without feeling like I’m constantly checking in. The alerts are clear and easy to understand, and the safety settings are already part of the phone, so setup was simple. It’s just taken a lot of stress off me.

Negative (1-star reviews from outraged teens)

Bark sees everything, I ain’t joking, bark sees your text (deleted ones), what you watch on social media, AI chatbot messages, what you draw on art programs, your calls, everything…everything everything, its so sensitive that you feel trapped in bark…even one bad word, even one offensive word, even one roblox video of guns, bark alerts the parents over small stuff…so you may get an alert about what your writing on google docs or whatever program your writing sadly.

No privacy at all. You can’t delete texts, you can’t use apps without approval and you won’t be able to call and text to numbers not approved by parents. Bark will also monitor your communication and send warnings to parents. And if they wish, they can just access the phone and read everything as you can’t delete apps/messages.

It’s a stupid starter Samsung phone for 10 year olds where the entire phone’s operating system is modified by bark and has parental control software BAKED into it.

My parents switched me from my iPhone 15 to a Bark Phone because I kept deleting their monitoring apps from my iPhone.

Get a job and pay for your own phone. If your parents are paying for it then it’s their house their rules.

How does Bark Phone work?

Bark phone is designed for child safety. Bark award-winning parental controls have been protecting millions of children online for years. The company are recognized experts in online dangers, creators of Childhood 2.0 documentary and Parenting in a Tech World book.

Bark phone has this expertise built in. Bark AI monitoring software scans all activity on the phone, protecting children from 29 different categories of online harm such as self-harm, cyberbullying, predators, suicidal ideation, violence, sexual content, profanity, weapons, and more.

Bark phone runs a custom Android operating system that is built specifically for child safety, which means the developer can monitor and control what the phone does. Bark parental controls rely on a custom VPN (Virtual Private Network) running in the background to filter content on the phone.

Bark phones are Samsung phones A16 (Bark Phone) and A36 (Bark Phone Pro). They look like regular smartphones — there is no Bark branding — so kids with Bark phones look just like their peers with smartphones, blending in with the crowd while enjoying digital safety.

The Bark Phone comes with Bark’s parental controls already built in, and these cannot be disabled or removed. Kids can’t download VPNs or workarounds. Traditional parental controls (including Bark software installed on other devices) usually require connecting a child’s login credentials for specific apps for monitoring to commence, so a degree of buy-in from the child is required. In case of Bark phone this is automatically included, simplifying the process — if the app is installed on Bark phone, it is monitored, parents don’t have to manually connect them.

Like other parental control apps, Bark can also manage screen time, block websites and apps, and track a child’s location.

How does Bark Phone protect children?

Bark phone can block access to entire categories and specific apps, and alert parents when children are exposed to questionable content so they can decide how to customize protection depending on the age and maturity of their child.

This is what Bark content filters setup looks like on the parental dashboard:

If any piece of content is flagged, the parent receives an email alert with a screenshot of the issue:

The alert shows the screenshot of the content, as well as the category of potential harm that triggered it. Parents can adjust alert settings by category, app, and severity.

What does Bark Phone monitor?

Device level: Texts, photos & videos, web browsing

Email: emails and image attachments

Apps: 30+ apps, including known offenders like Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, Roblox, Spotify, WhatsApp, and many others

Browsers: Website visits, searches, and incognito browsing

What is the difference between Bark Phone and other Bark products?

How much does Bark Phone cost and are there any discounts?

Promo code TECH20OFF for $20 OFF Bark phone (Bark parental controls for all devices included with subscription).

If not purchasing the phone, use promo code TECHDETOX20 for 20% OFF on Bark parental controls for the life of the account.

There are 3 components to the cost of Bark service: the phone itself, cell service, and parental controls.

The Bark Phone is financed over 24 months at either $10/month (Bark Phone) or $25/month (Bark Phone Pro), so the total cost is:

• Bark Phone: $240
• Bark Phone Pro: $600

Bark serves as a cell service provider (using T-Mobile network), so you cannot use your existing cell phone company, but you can transfer an existing number to Bark Phone. What this usually means for families is that parents keep their phones with a traditional cell service provider, while children get their cell service from Bark. All plans include unlimited talk and text.

Monthly service plans (cell service and Bark parental controls):

• Starter Plan: $29/month

Unlimited talk and text

No internet, app store, or games

Advanced Plans:

• From $39/month: Wi-Fi only, no data
• From $49/month: Includes 4GB of data
• From $59/month: Includes 8GB of data

Bark Premium subscription (Bark parental controls) is included and can be used by the entire family on unlimited devices besides the Bark Phone.

What are Bark Phone’s Pros and Cons?

Pros:

Safety. Some of the digital harms Bark detects are life-and-death situations. There is no room for error. Bark has detected millions of self-harm and cyberbullying situations over the years, preventing an unknown number of tragedies.

Peace of mind. Parents are relieved of the full-time job of monitoring kids’ digital safety. It’s always been a losing battle anyway — we are busy, exhausted, not tech-savvy, hopelessly behind the ever-changing world of emerging digital threats. Bark does it all, so parents can rest easy in the knowledge that kids are safe and digital parenting is taken care of.

Conflict reduction. No need to take the phones away to look through activity, and endure daily conflict with the kids. Monitoring happens automatically in the background, 24/7.

Knowledge. Parents have a discreet insight into their child’s online and social world without the child knowing what mom and dad actually see. If the parents decide an alert from Bark is not a big deal (like a slightly inappropriate but otherwise innocent meme), no need to alarm the kid. If it’s something serious — it’s time to talk.

Communication. Alerts sent by Bark are perfect prompts to facilitate family conversations about digital safety on a personal level. They are not abstract digital dangers, but the child’s actual online activity.

Security. While kids can often circumvent parental controls installed on regular smartphones, they cannot hack a Bark phone to operate like an unrestricted smartphone. Safety is built in at the level of the phone operating system.

Kids’ social standing. Bark phone looks like any other smartphone, thus preserving kids’ social standing among their peers.

Cons

Resistance. Kids, especially teens, do not like devices with parental controls. They are not cool. They want complete digital freedom despite the dangers. They will grumble.

Functionality. Sometimes legitimate activity such as school work could be flagged and/or blocked because it does not look safe to Bark software. No filter is perfect.

Surveillance. Bark monitoring is de-facto parental surveillance of the kids’ private lives in the name of their safety. Parents have the right and the responsibility, but the older the child is, the more offended they will be of this intrusion into their privacy.

Performance. Since Bark conducts constant real-time monitoring, some users report that the phone operates slower because of it.

Price. Data plans can get expensive compared to other child-safe phones.

Deceit. If the child rebels against digital safety and limitations enabled by Bark, they could deliberately try accessing inappropriate content on devices without parental controls, friends’ devices, or burner devices parents do not know about.